Name: Georgia U-turns from its Western path as crackdown continues
Uploaded: 2025-11-18T14:41:14.062Z
Duration: 2 min 55 s
Description: Once on a pathway to align with the West, Georgia has slid into one-party rule shocking many in the tiny South Caucasus country. Opposition figures are now in jail with the ruling party Georgian Dream claiming they are shielding the country from those who want a catastrophic war with Russia.

Once on a pathway to align with the West, Georgia has slid into one-party rule shocking many in the tiny South Caucasus country. Opposition figures are now in jail with the ruling party Georgian Dream claiming they are shielding the country from those who want a catastrophic war with Russia.

Tbilisi

Georgia, previously regarded as a promising democracy following the collapse of the Soviet Union, is experiencing a shift towards one-party rule under the Georgian Dream party. The government has intensified actions against opposition figures, with many jailed, exiled, or facing charges, and is seeking to ban major opposition groups.

The European Union has stated that Georgia is now a candidate for membership only in name, citing the country's departure from the path toward joining the bloc. Meanwhile, foreign investment has dropped significantly, and recent government measures have targeted both dissenters and figures within the ruling party, leading to increased political repression and public protests.

Georgia U-turns from its Western path as crackdown continues

Once seen as a burgeoning democracy after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia is sliding into one-party rule. That has shocked many in the tiny South Caucasus country of 3.7 million. Leading opposition figures are in jail, exile or under charges, with the ruling party, Georgian Dream, aiming to ban the three main opposition groups outright. This month, the EU declared in a report that Georgia was now a candidate for membership in name only. The EU ambassador in Tbilisi said Georgia was no longer on the trajectory to join the bloc at all. Georgian Dream, however, says it is protecting the country from opposition figures who are trying to seize power and provoke a catastrophic war with Russia. That fear became palpable after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It evoked memories of Russian tanks rolling into Tbilisi in a humiliating defeat by Moscow in a brief war in 2008. Georgian Dream lawmaker Nino Silosani described Georgia as an island of peace. The war in Ukraine, the Gaza and the Palestinian and Israel war, the processes and conflicts in the Middle East and Iran and Syria and everything, all these countries are around Georgia. But Georgia stays peaceful and what investors and what business needs is stability. Opponents paint Georgian Dream's billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili as the author of the authoritarian shift. Some accuse him of being in league with Russia, where he amassed his fortune in the 1990s. Criss-crossed by oil and gas pipelines, Georgia could in theory play a major role in the West's aim to diversify energy and trade routes away from Russia. However, foreign investment has dropped to early 2000s levels, reversing years of pro-Western growth with the country now appearing to lean towards Russia and China. In recent weeks, Georgian Dream has undertaken a flurry of measures that look to root out what remains of political dissent. The crackdown has targeted figures close to the ruling party itself, with recent criminal charges levied against senior government ministers. Arrests at nightly anti-government protests outside the parliament keep political activists in states of fear, despair and resignation. Dozens are languishing in jail or have been fined for blocking the road. Gregor Gagalia is a member of the opposition Lelow party. We are losing our country and we realise full well what that means for all of us. That means a grey sphere without any perspective, with corruption, without ambitions, without a sovereign voice.

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