A little over a year ago, a series of opposition parties competed for votes in Georgia’s parliamentary elections, with four of them entering parliament, but now seven of the leaders of the eight largest opposition parties are in prison, in exile or facing criminal charges, Reuters writes.
The shift to one-party rule in the small South Caucasus country has shocked many. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia presented itself as a growing democracy and quickly moved away from Russia’s sphere of interest towards the European Union. Now, according to Brussels, Georgia is further from the West than at any time in the post-Soviet period. Several Georgian politicians and diplomats who spoke to Reuters about the events in the country in recent months said Georgia was very close to crossing a line beyond which it would be extremely difficult to restore democracy.
Former Deputy Foreign Minister Sergi Kapanadze stressed that the country is now just a few steps away from a dictatorship.
Natalia Sabanadze, who was Georgia’s ambassador to the EU until 2021, said that for decades, despite heated domestic political discussions, it had always been clear that Georgia belonged to the West. Now it no longer does. She said of the ruling Georgian Dream party that its representatives are aware that the democratization demanded by the EU means that at some point power will inevitably pass to other hands. “They don’t want that. And they are actually creating a completely authoritarian regime,” Sabanadze said.
Meanwhile,
the Georgian Dream party has announced that it is trying to protect the country from opposition figures
who, according to ruling party, are trying to come to power in order to provoke a war with Russia. Fears of war became especially acute after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and many Georgians were reminded of Russia’s aggression in 2008, when Russian tanks were stationed on the outskirts of Tbilisi.
The ruling party’s representative, Nino Tsilosani, pointed out that Georgia is a haven of peace in a geopolitically very difficult place, and investors and hosts need stability. Tsilosani accused opposition politicians of plotting a coup.
The opposition believes that the country’s turn towards authoritarianism is to blame for the founder of the Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is also accused of collaborating with Russia. It was there that the billionaire made his fortune in the 1990s.
Georgia is strategically located on the Black Sea, and oil and gas pipelines cross the region. Thus, the country could be a serious player in Western efforts to divert energy resources away from Russia. If after the collapse of the Soviet Union Georgia flourished quite rapidly due to foreign investment, now the country’s openness has sharply decreased, and in the last two years foreign investment has fallen to a level last seen in the very early 2000s.
Economic growth has not stopped sharply yet,
but mainly because, with the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine, many Russian companies entered Georgia.
However, since the exclusion of the Western-led consortium from the project, the construction of a new port on the Black Sea, which was considered a potential transit connection point between Europe and Asia, has almost stopped. A new tender has been won by a company from China, but construction will practically not continue.
Although Tbilisi and Moscow do not have diplomatic relations, currently about 45% of oil comes from Russia (in 2012, only 8% of the oil needed by Georgia was imported from Kireivya). Former US Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly said Georgia has opened its doors to China and Russia.
In recent weeks, the Georgian Dream has taken a series of steps to eliminate what remains of its political opponents. The arrests and potential banning of the three largest opposition parties will take away any chance of action. The ruling party has also targeted its allies and party members. Grigol Gegeliya, a member of the opposition Lelo party, said Georgia has disappeared not only from Europe but also from the international scene: “We are losing our country.”
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