Mikheil Kavelashvili has become president of Georgia in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for Russia.

Georgian lawmakers have voted in far-right former soccer star Mikheil Kavelashvili as next president of Georgia, amid mounting popular anger over the government’s halt to EU accession talks.

Georgian lawmakers elected Mikheil Kavelashvili, a hardline critic of the West, as president on Saturday, setting him up to replace a pro-Western incumbent amid major protests against the government over a halt to the country’s European Union accession talks last month.