What's happening in Georgia? In October 2024, the Georgian Dream party extended its 12 years in power following rigged elections. A month later, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced Georgia was freezing its application to become a member of the European Union. His speech sparked outrage, and daily public protests. Police, special forces and state-approved heavies (or 'titushkies') were deployed to brutally supress protests and target protestors and journalists. Repressive laws (FARA, the Law on Grants) were enacted to make it almost impossible for NGOs, civil society groups, independent media and lawyers to remain solvent, and to challenge the government... but still they do.
What is the story of Georgian Dream, and its backer, the billionaire oligarch Bidzhina Ivanishvili? When did this nominally 'pro-European' government cast off its mask and reveal its desire to create a Russian-style authoritarian state in pro-European Georgia?
English language podcast about the situation in Georgia.
#GeorgiaProtests #TerrorInGeorgia
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What's happening in Georgia? In October 2024, the Georgian Dream party extended its 12 years in power following rigged elections. A month later, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced Georgia was freezing its application to become a member of the European Union. His speech sparked outrage, and daily public protests. Police, special forces and state-approved heavies (or 'titushkies') were deployed to brutally supress protests and target protestors and journalists. Repressive laws (FARA, the Law on Grants) were enacted to make it almost impossible for NGOs, civil society groups, independent media and lawyers to remain solvent, and to challenge the government... but still they do.
What is the story of Georgian Dream, and its backer, the billionaire oligarch Bidzhina Ivanishvili? When did this nominally 'pro-European' government cast off its mask and reveal its desire to create a Russian-style authoritarian state in pro-European Georgia?
English language podcast about the situation in Georgia.
#GeorgiaProtests #TerrorInGeorgia
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On 6 August 2025, Mzia Amaglobeli, a journalist and the co-founder of the independent news platforms Netgazeti and Batumelebi, was sentenced to two years in prison. The provocation, arrest, and ill-treatment of a respected journalist brought fresh international attention to Georgian Dream’s attempts to silence independent media. The absurd show trial that followed was supposed to intimidate all journalists, but in reality it did more to highlight the absence of justice in Georgia - disproportionate charges, a captured judiciary, a parade of underlings and stooges pushed out of the shadows to deliver under-rehearsed, sham testimony, to the point that you wonder if this is part of the show of force: 'Look what we can do, we don’t even have to try anymore.' While Mzia’s trial may have briefly drawn interest from West of the Black Sea, Georgian Dream’s pincer movement, simultaneously undermining independent media and making life intolerable for individual journalists has been years in the making.
With Anna Gvarishvili, Mariam Nikuradze, Irma Dimitradze and Zaza Abashidze.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.