The World Briefly

April 11, 2023

Dreams and Nightmares

Georgia

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Thousands of opposition supporters protested in Georgia’s capital this week amid growing criticism that the country’s government is moving toward autocracy and collaborating with Russia, Euronews reported.

Protesters marched in front of the parliament in Tbilisi, calling for the “release of political prisoners and the implementation of reforms” sought by the European Union to grant Georgia candidate status.

The demonstrations were organized by the main opposition group, the United National Movement, founded by imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili.

The marches come as the ruling Georgian Dream Party has come under intense scrutiny for allegedly imprisoning opponents, silencing independent media and secretly working with the Kremlin.

Last month, the government proposed a contentious bill that would classify non-governmental organizations and media that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad as “foreign agents.”

The government dropped the bill following a series of demonstrations and after critics said the draft law closely resembles similar legislation in Russia.

In March, Euronews reported on how shadowy political organizations were attempting to create the false impression that Georgian society was more divided on critical topics such as EU membership than it actually was. Analysts speculate that the Kremlin was behind the maneuver.

Meanwhile, the United States banned four Georgian judges last week, accusing them of corruption and also of abusing their positions to serve the interests of oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is the founder of the Georgian Dream Party, Agence France-Presse added.

This story originally appeared in the April 11, 2023 newsletter, The Spiral.