The country that demonstrates every day for two years against Russian influence

TbilisiAs every Saturday, at eight in the evening, nearly a thousand people have gathered in Avlabari Square, near the center of the Georgian capital. The protest atmosphere, with a profusion of national flags and anti-government slogans, and their demands are not very different from those of other countries suffering an authoritarian drift in the current global populist wave.

The peculiarity, and the merit, of Georgian dissent is that these mobilizations are daily and have already been sustained for more than 615 days. “I don’t know how long we will continue, I suppose until free elections are held,” comments Natalie, who has just graduated in linguistics and says she attends almost every day. The fact that Tbilisi has swung towards Moscow to the detriment of Brussels gives the internal conflict a relevant geopolitical dimension.

The mobilization clock began to count after the victory of the Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012, in the general elections of October 2024. According to official results, this party, controlled by magnate Bidzina Ivanishvili, with an estimated fortune of 20% of the country's GDP, obtained an absolute majority with 53% of the votes. But the opposition considered that there had been massive fraud and called for the mobilizations, which at their peak managed to gather more than 200,000 people in a country of 3.5 million inhabitants.

The protests gained momentum after two controversial decisions by the re-elected executive: suspending negotiations to join the European Union, an ambition supported by more than 70% of Georgians, and approving a very restrictive association law inspired by the one in force in Russia. Among other measures, the new legislation obliges all NGOs with external contacts to register as “foreign agents,” and they can only receive funds with an unlikely prior government approval. Any non-compliance is punished with harsh sanctions of up to six years in prison.

This harshness also applies to protests, and arrests are common, often with excessive brutality. Civil rights organizations estimate there are nearly 60 political prisoners in the country, and some have reported torture. Additionally, those retaliated against with minor punishments, such as short-term arrests and high fines, number in the hundreds. “There are days when I am more afraid than others, but it is important to fight for the future of my country,” says Natalia, who believes many young people have stopped attending mobilizations due to fear and a sense of frustration. “The police can fine you 5,000 laris (about 1,700 euros) just for attending protests. And here, that is equivalent to several months' salary,” adds the young activist.

“Georgia’s experience in the last three years is a warning about the speed with which governments can turn state institutions into powerful tools of repression to entrench themselves in power,” states Denis Krivoxiv, head of Amnesty International in the Caucasus region. “The authorities have created a system in which peaceful dissent is a crime,” Krivoxiv adds.

Muzzling society

One of the most important effects of the government's repressive measures package has been to muzzle a civil society that until recently was solid and vibrant. Faced with the inability to receive public or foreign funding, most NGOs have been forced to make drastic staff cuts and rely on volunteers. “The pressure on intellectuals and journalists is very strong. We at the newspaper suffer from it. But we must fight for freedom,” proclaims the well-known writer and journalist Zviad Kvaratskhelia, also present at the demonstration. The march, surrounded by a great din from the sound of car horns wanting to show their support, ends in front of Parliament, as always.

In addition to the descent into an authoritarian system, one of the main complaints of the protesters is the fact that the government has adopted a pro-Russian stance, as Moscow has occupied 20% of the country for decades, the separatist provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. For this reason, there are numerous Ukrainian flags at the march and one of the most repeated slogans is: "Long live Georgia, long live Ukraine and long live the heroes!", in reference to the soldiers who fell in combat defending national sovereignty.

However, Eleonora Tafuro, director of the Center for the Caucasus and Central Asia in think tank Italian ISPI, however, qualifies the pro-Russian label that protesters assign to Ivanishvili's government, which made a good part of its fortune during the privatization period in Russia: "It is a simplification. Georgian Dream is only looking for the best way to stay in power. Regarding Ukraine, it has sought a balance, voting at the UN against Moscow's aggression, but without applying sanctions. Furthermore, it used the conflict in the last elections by selling the false narrative that, if the pro-Western opposition won, Georgia would enter the war alongside Ukraine".