Mikheil Saakashvili, the embattled president of Georgia, vowed to see out his last four years in office and branded opposition leaders who led tens of thousands of protesters on to the streets of Tbilisi last week as politically immature.

"This is a mess and when there is a mess, radicals always prevail, [threatening the country with] doomsday", he told the Financial Times. "Why would somebody resign every time some party told them to?"