Editor’s Note: Zil Dorgerty is a former Director of CNN Moscow, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a CNN contributor to Russia.
CNN
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Ten years ago, Georgia was a child of a post-Soviet country poster on its way to democracy and freedom. The government was taking steps to combat corruption. Civil society was in bloom. The economy was growing. American companies were investing.
In 2004, even though he was not a member of NATO, Georgia sent soldiers to Afghanistan, joining other members of the US and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) and becoming the largest non-nat contributor of the business. In 2005, US President George W. Bush visited Tbilisi, and the expressway leading to the airport was renamed “George W. Bush Street.”
The signs for that street are still there, but today Georgia’s democracy is falling apart, a small, strategically located country of 3.7 million people. At Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats are pushing for the passing of the Megobari Act in a bipartisan effort.
In Georgian, “megobari” means friend, and its sponsor says it aims to strengthen Georgia’s democratic practices, human rights and the rule of law. It imposes US sanctions, visa bans and assets freezes on officials deemed responsible for election fraud, corruption and political crackdown. But US lawmakers warn, and Georgia is quickly slipping under the influence of Russia, China and Iran.
Last December, the US imposed sanctions on Vidina Ivanishvili, the shadow ruler of Georgia, a billionaire who built up her fortune in Russia in the 1990s. The party he founded, the Georgian Dream, controls all branches of the government. Almost all political opposition leaders are placed in prison. About 60 political inmates are suffering in prison, according to human rights groups.
For more than 200 days, protesters have been filling Tbilisi’s main streets with flags of Georgian, the US and the European Union.
Many people wear masks and are trying to avoid being identified by anti-corruption groups saying the number of Chinese-made face recognition cameras installed by the government is increasing. Violators from Amnesty International rights groups say they are a repressive new law to crack down on dissent, worth $2,000.
A George Andream spokesman did not comment on CNN about the issue of Chinese-made cameras used for surveillance.
Protesters were violently arrested and tortured, according to Transparency International, one of the anti-corruption groups. Last year, the US imposed sanctions against Vakhtang Gomelauri, the then-Minister of the Interior in Georgia, against “a brutal and violent crackdown on the media, opposition and protesters.”
The protests were primarily peaceful, Levan Makashvili, a member of the George Andream Party and chairman of the Georgia Parliament’s European Integrated Commission, told CNN on Tuesday. However, he argued that there were violent protesters and said they should be prosecuted. “There’s a law. If you challenge a national institution, if you challenge a state, if you challenge a state, you need to be prepared for responsibility,” he said. “If you attack the US Capitol, you get blame. If you attack the Parliament in the European Union, you get blame. That’s normal.”
Georgia held a congressional election last October. This declared that international election observers were neither free nor fair. With no one to stop the lawmakers of Georgia’s dreams, the opposition parties decide to boycott the new parliament, and they light up what observers say on the railroad, a series of Russian laws that have deeply biased Georgia’s society and have developed tense relations with major western allies.
The European Parliament last week said that the integrated elections “marked a clear turning point for the authoritarian governments of the EU candidate countries,” a news release said, calling for a new election and a return to the path of democratic reform.
China’s influence in Georgia is also growing. Last year, the government cancelled its contracts with Georgian, US and European consortiums and built an Anagliak deep sea port in the Black Sea. Instead, it gave contracts to companies affiliated with Chinese states. Some of it is under US sanctions.
Georgia’s dream is also finding friends in Iran. Last May, Georgia’s then-newly appointed Prime Minister Irakli Kobakitze flew to Tehran to attend the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and joined Hamas and Hezbollah leaders for the funeral. In July he returned to the inauguration of Iran’s new president.
Trade between Iran and Georgia is growing rapidly. This is mainly due to the imports of Iranian oil and petroleum products. The Citizen’s Idea, a survey by a Georgia-based NGO, reports that “several Georgia companies have emerged with direct links between Iran’s Ministry of Defense and the military’s logistics department as diplomatic relations approaches.”
The survey states that “Iranian businessmen will use Georgia as a strategic transport point to return international sanctions and channel funds to Iran’s Islamic Republic.”
Georgia’s once-strong relationship with the United States has fallen apart. Tbilisi’s US ambassador, Robin Dunnigan, is diminishing what she calls the government’s “anti-American rhetoric.” In an interview with RFE/RL, she said that Georgia’s dream leaders had sent private letters to the Trump administration.
The Georgia dream Mahashvili blames the degradation of the Biden administration. “We were very surprised by the former ambassador’s statement,” he told CNN. “We felt that not only did many people not want to reinvigorate these relationships, but that they were also trying to install as many lockdowns or obstructions as possible.”
Georgia is “ready to work with” the Trump administration, he argued, “making it “explicitly clear” that he hopes to reinvigorate these relationships with the new US administration, including trade, economy, transportation, logistics, and in this part of the world, all sorts of areas of interest to the US.
Despite the government’s increasing consistency with Russia, Georgians are overwhelmingly supporting integration with the West. The Georgian Constitution includes the obligation to pursue full integration between the European Union and NATO. However, in November 2024, the Georgia Dream-controlled government suspended its efforts, claiming it was intending to advance its EU membership, and halted its decision by the US State Department that it warned that Georgia would become “more vulnerable to the Kremlin.”
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 provided a powerful but paranoid message to Georgia’s dreams. The West is trying to drag Georgia into war. The anti-war message resonates with many Georgians. Georgia itself was invaded by Russia in 2008, and Russia still accounts for two regions, accounting for around 20% of the country’s internationally recognized territory. Ivanishvili and his Georgian Dream Party sharpen the allegations and argue that without evidence what they call the “Earth War Party” or “Deep State” is trying to incite the Georgia revolution.
The Megobari Act, along with the stated purpose of countering the influence of Georgia’s China, Iran and Russia, is sponsored by South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson in the US House and Senate by New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen. The bill was passed in the House and introduced in the Senate. If it passes in the Senate, if amendments are made, I will return to the House of Representatives and go to President Donald Trump for signing. Its supporters encourage quick passage.
“The Georgians are revealing the euro-Atlantic aspirations, and the US must continue to support them in Georgia’s dream efforts to erode democratic institutions,” Shaheen said in an interview with CNN. “When Russia aims to undermine democracy across the region, we cannot turn our backs on our key partners striving for a free and democratic future.”
The Georgians themselves say the bill could become a powerful weapon to pull Georgia back from the brink. “The sanctions not only signalled, but the stab wounds — when the oligarchs noticed,” said Zviad Adzinbaia, a doctoral fellow at Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law School. “And in this case they’re sweating.”
Makhashvili ruled out possible threats from the Megobari Act, but admitted, “Of course, this act is a kind of symbol of the fact that there are several voices in the US Congress that are not interested in their usual relationship with Georgia for some reason.”
Other Georgians warn that under a serious threat from the government, opposition members are still separated by different views of how to counterattack. The current discussion is whether opposition parties should take part in the national city elections scheduled for October.
Ia Meurmishvili, editor-in-chief of Independent Avenue Media, editor-in-chief of International Journalism Initiative, told CNN:
Georgia’s former prime minister and leader of Georgia’s opposition, Giorgia, is on the crosshairs of Georgia’s Dream Party. Authorities charged him with treason. Most Western observers say it was a politically motivated attack. He faces a maximum of 15 to 20 years of prison and is now located outside of Georgia. His party has said upcoming local elections in October “may be the last democratic battlefield to stop Georgia’s slipping towards authoritarianism.”
He told CNN: “While it offers hope for greater Western engagement, international pressure alone cannot reverse Georgia’s current trajectory. The administration is actively working to eliminate all reliable alternatives, but I am confident that I have the determination and courage to resist the right place in Europe and regain the right place in Europe.”