The Daily Beat: 8 January

The New Year’s Holidays are over and we are back on schedule. We will continue to update you on major developments in Georgia in an accurate and timely manner.  

Non-stop nationwide protests against the GD government’s increasingly pro-Russian stance and its U-turn on EU accession talks until 2028 have continued despite the usually passive holiday week. Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered on Rustaveli Avenue to celebrate New Year and Christmas. Their demands remain unchanged – the release of those detained during protests and the calling of new elections. For more updates, don’t miss our Liveblog: Resistance 2025.

Right after Orthodox Christmas, the Georgian Dream Party released a statement, revisiting its well-tested conspiracy theories and criticizing recent financial sanctions and visa restrictions. The ruling party labeled these measures as “anti-Georgian steps” orchestrated by what it calls the “Global War Party” and “deep state” networks.

The ruling party has welcomed the recent decision by tech giant Meta to discontinue the use of independent fact-checkers on its Facebook and Instagram platforms, opting instead for X-style community notes. The GD’s excitement may be premature since Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the change would initially be implemented only in the U.S.

Speaking at a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Georgia was one of the issues discussed at the meeting with his French counterpart, adding that the democratic backsliding in Georgia is “deeply concerning.”

President of the OSCE PA, Pia Kauma, canceled her visit to Georgia scheduled for 8 January. The announcement of the visit sparked criticism from opposition parties, civic activists, and President Salome Zurabishvili, who warned that the visit could be exploited by the GD to assert legitimacy. “Following discussions and after close consideration, I’ve decided to postpone visiting Georgia until a time that the OSCE PA engagement would be most effective,” Pia Kauma wrote on X.

Three opposition political parties—Coalition for Change, Unity-UNM, and Strong Georgia—sent a joint letter to Theodoros Rousopoulos, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as to the leaders of the Assembly’s political groups. In a joint letter, they requested that the credentials of the Georgian parliamentary delegation not be verified. The 2025 Plenary Session is scheduled to open on January 27.

The Interior Ministry’s Department of Migration reported that 91 foreign nationals were expelled from the country during November and December 2024. According to the Migration Department, 25 of these individuals participated in the ongoing protests in Tbilisi, with 10 of them having already left the country. While some left voluntarily, others were deported through enforcement measures.

Davit Katsarava, the leader of the anti-occupation movement “Strength is in Unity,” reported that the occupation regime in Tskhinvali has sentenced two employees of the Gori military hospital, Aleksi Mamulia and Vano Japiashvili, to two months of pre-trial detention for crossing the occupation line. Earlier, the State Security Service reported that Russian occupation forces illegally detained two Georgian citizens, though the names of those detained were not disclosed.