Teenagers, parents, soccer players, politicians, and even the president take to the streets of Tbilisi, Georgia, every night. express a dissenting opinion Parliamentary elections in October and recent announcements by the Georgian government are suspending the country's membership in the European Union. There are elderly people all over the place.
In one video, young men gently surround an “old lady” to prevent her from being sprayed with water. RoboCop, dressed in black and without any identifying insignia, violently attacks peaceful protesters who are already unconscious on the ground, kicking them in the head.
These security forces are particularly interested in journalists, and some of my friends have been hospitalized with broken noses and concussions.
I moved to Georgia in 2014. At that time, democracy was in its infancy. There was a peaceful transfer of power from the Mikheil Saakashvili government to the Georgian Dream Coalition. Democratic reforms were being implemented. The country has established a ministry dedicated to integration into the EU and NATO. It was a safe haven for democratic activists in the dictatorship.
It has now become a dictatorship in itself.
Democracy has always been Georgia's main asset. The country's relationship with the West was built on shared values, not oil or trade. Without democracy, Georgia partnerships have limited value. It's time for the US and EU to ignore the “concerning” embassy statements and make some impact.
The first whiff of democratic decline came not long after I moved there. The policy began, as it often does, with illiberal policies, fueled by the Kremlin's powerful intelligence operations, targeting people in the country who are gay, transgender, or ethnic minorities. The Georgia Dream coalition quickly collapsed, with more reform-minded parties leaving.
Major judicial reforms failed to pass, and attacks on the media increased. The definitive sign of decline came during the Georgia Dream Party. Allowed Russian parliamentarian Sergei Gavrilov to speak from the podium. In the Georgia State Legislature. Protests broke out, followed by a violent response by police.
Rather than uniting Georgians with Western allies and shared democratic values, a full-scale invasion of Ukraine would allow Georgia Dream leaders to insult American and European diplomats, lawmakers, and officials. He went on to label them the “world war party” and accuse them of promoting Georgia. Enter the “second front” against Russia.
Georgia has since become a route for Russia to evade sanctions, including by reusing machinery to support the war, and the Georgia Dream Flights to and from Moscow resumed. But Georgians have taken to the streets to support their brothers and sisters in Ukraine, and Ukrainian flags are being hung on apartment buildings across the capital.
In addition to friendly relations with Moscow, Georgia Dream forged new partnerships with China, Iran, and other authoritarian regimes.
This year, the government focused on civil society, Georgia's most powerful democratic element, passing the following legislation: “Foreign Agent Law” modeled on Russia This is to limit their activities. By the way, I passed Georgia Dream. Anti-gay “propaganda” laws It restricts free assembly and speech; “Offshore assets” law It allows the country's de facto leader, oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, to move his wealth more opaquely. In order to tilt the electoral playing field, the party refused to comply with the law on the appointment of the Electoral Commission Chair, installed a supporter in his place, and ignored much-needed EU electoral reforms.
Even before voting began on October 26, there were already doubts about the integrity of the election. Intimidation, vote buying, raids, and legal threats against civil society and election monitoring organizations were rampant during the election period. Georgia Dream and the Kremlin worked together to threaten voters with war if they voted for the opposition. And Georgia Dream campaigned on promises to hold Nuremberg trials against its critics and ban all opposition parties.
I've been observing elections around the world for decades, and there have been many elections in Georgia, and Election Day was filled with a serious atmosphere.irregularity— multiple voting, ballot stuffing, lack of confidentiality, intimidation;statistically impossible(like107 percentproportion of men who vote in a particular constituency). The result also did not match the results of reliable international exit polls, which showed a victory for the opposition. Although we will never know exactly how much the election results were affected by the violations, we can say with certainty that the elections did not meet democratic standards.
Georgia Dream officially attended Congress last week. This was an illegal act because the election case was pending in the Constitutional Court and required presidential approval (which the president refused). One of Georgia Dream's first actions was to cancel its plans to join the EU despite overwhelming opposition. public support For EU member states.
These leaders have made their intentions clear. They flipped the script on who was the country's friend and who was its enemy. The United States must respond accordingly and protect Georgians by not recognizing the election results (and an illegitimate Congress) and demanding an independent (non-Georgia) investigation into election complaints. Financial sanctions and travel bans should be imposed against Ivanishvili and his affiliates, Georgia Dream leaders, and security forces that attack civilians. The United States should call on Georgian officials, diplomats, and police to follow the Constitution and reject the Georgia Dream mandate. The EU has significant influence and should use it. That means abolishing visa-free travel for Georgia Dream leaders.
We must isolate the Georgia Dream, but we cannot abandon Georgians. Support for civil society and independent media in the US and EU should be increased. And we must continue to stand in solidarity with peaceful protesters. After all, they've been successful before, and in 2003, people rose revolution We restored democracy and freed ourselves from the shackles of a corrupt regime.
Laura Thornton has lived abroad for 25 years, working for pro-democracy organizations from Thailand to Cambodia to Georgia. She is senior director of global democracy at the McCain Institute.
