A statue of long-time Soviet leader Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili Stalin has been re-erected in a village in Georgia.
It is a sign of the loss of influence of former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who ordered the statue's removal this summer.
"We should not forget our past, we should not forget Stalin, who played a key role in the victory against the Nazis," said the president of the Communist Party, Grigol Onijani, in front of several dozen residents of Alvani in the northwest of the country.
The monument was opened on the occasion of the 133rd anniversary of the birth of Stalin, on December 21, 1879.
The city authorities of Gori, Stalin's birthplace, voted to restore the second Stalin statue, which was removed from the city square in 2010.
According to a 2011 law, it is forbidden to display Soviet symbols in Georgia, as well as former Soviet and Communist Party leaders and representatives of the KGB secret service.
Georgia has not had diplomatic relations with Russia since 2008, when Moscow recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two Georgian separatist regions.
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