Kavelashvili is a founder of the People’s Power party, known for being the main voice for anti-Western propaganda in Georgia.

He has accused opposition parties of acting as a “fifth column” directed from abroad, and described President Zourabichvili as a “chief agent”.

Kavelashvili moved into politics after he was disqualified from seeking the leadership of the Georgian football federation because he lacked the qualifications.

Although his party ran alongside Georgian Dream in the October elections, it has now decided to act in parliament as a “healthy opposition”, to fill the place of the “so-called radical opposition funded by foreign forces”.

A People’s Power party MP, Guram Macharashvili, who announced on 13 December that his faction would leave the ruling parliamentary majority, told the BBC that what was happening in the country was an “artificially created crisis characterised by the influence of foreign powers”.

Macharashvili and Kavelashvili are the architects of Georgia’s controversial “foreign agents” law, seen by the country’s opposition as Russian-style legislation.

When asked what “healthy opposition” means, Macharashvili said: “Opposition does not necessarily mean opposition on all issues, it does not mean only cooperation with foreigners. It means competition with the ruling party to make better proposals on what’s best for Georgia’s future.”