Thousands of opposition activists have demonstrated in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi - their first major protest since the conflict with Russia.
Critics have accused President Mikhail Saakashvili of starting a war with Russia that Georgia could not win.
Russian jets have bombed a Georgian town amid a deepening crisis over the breakaway South Ossetia region.
Georgia says 60 people died in Gori when the bombs hit residential buildings as well as military targets.
Russian officials say hundreds of civilians have been killed in South Ossetia. Georgia denies the figure, which cannot be independently verified.
Reports say Russian PM Vladimir Putin has stopped in Russia's North Ossetia region on his return from the Olympics.
Great. Georgia's president said Friday that his country is under attack by Russian tanks and warplanes, and he accused Russia of targeting civilians as tensions over the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia appeared to boil over into full-blown conflict.
The region of South Ossetia lies in the north central part of Georgia and is home to an ethnic group distinct from both the Georgians and Russians. When Georgia came under Soviet rule in 1923, the Soviet government granted South Ossetia the status of being the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast (SOAO) within the Soviet Republic of Georgia. At the same time, North Ossetia was left under the domain of Russia, thus splitting Ossetia into Northern and Southern regions. Therefore, since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the South Ossetians, have been attempting to gain independence since November 1989 when the SOAO Council sent a letter to the Georgian Supreme Soviet demanding to be unified with North Ossetia, mostly out of concern regarding Georgian nationalism and subsequent second class treatment.
