Georgia’s politics went back to school last week with repression, protest, and pre-election drama all spiking simultaneously. As many Georgians cheer the Georgia side for eliminating the French to reach the EuroBasket Quarterfinals, we cast our eyes back at the week’s highlights.
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Leading the news: A Poisoned Pardon
GD keeps cramming headliners into the weekends. With only four weeks to go until the local elections, GD president Mikheil Kavelashvili pardoned Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, leaders of Lelo/Stong Georgia, two out of eight politicians jailed for refusing to testify before the Tsulukiani Commission.
The release was broadly welcomed, as the two were seen as political prisoners. But it also fueled the fresh round of opposition bickering. Lelo, just like Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party, has broken ranks with other opposition parties and decided to run in local elections on October 4.
So the unexpected pardon created optics of Khazaradze and Japaridze being rewarded by GD for giving the upcoming polls the much-sought veneer of legitimacy after the united opposition front refused to recognize last year’s parliamentary elections. Kavelashvili said as much, by declaring that the pardon was meant to prevent any future talks of “limited competitiveness” of the locals. Opposition and civil society figures (somewhat naively) implored Khazaradze to (re)join the boycott, but to no avail. The rift among the opposition widened further (we reported in detail here).
In the dash “to leave no questions about the [validity of] elections,” GD PM Irakli Kobakhidze on Saturday extended Georgian Dream’s belated invitation of the OSCE/ODIHR election observers. Showing just how at odds the opposition parties have grown, Lelo spokesperson Grigol Gegelia welcomed the invitation, pledging “full coordination” with the mission. Speaking for the United National Movement (UNM), Irakli Pavlenishvili dismissed the invitation as irrelevant, claiming the “absolute majority” of opposition-leaning voters will boycott.
Weekly routine: Jailings, Protests, and More Repression
Georgian Dream’s parliament reconvened for the fall session, hearing the 470-page Tsulukiani Commission report, approving 12 MPs from ex-PM Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party, endorsing Mamuka Mdinaradze as head of the State Security Service, and adopting harsher rules for financial crime convicts before going on break again until October 15 following the local elections.
Meanwhile, the courts ruled on 22 protest-related cases, with eight defendants sentenced to between two and two-and-a-half years and eleven others given two years, all convicted of “disrupting public order.” Another person received a two-year sentence for confronting a masked police officer, while a Russian citizen was handed eight-and-a-half years on drug charges, and one was acquitted of drug charges.
The verdicts, parliament’s return, and the pre-election period revived protests and fueled tensions: at least 20 people were detained on administrative charges on September 2 on Rustaveli Avenue. A shouting match between protesters and GD members flared for two nights outside Kakha Kaladze’s new campaign office on Melikishvili Avenue in Tbilisi, amid a heavy police presence.
Preparing the ground for further repression – in the form of banning UNM and perhaps other opposition parties – MP Tea Tsulukiani presented on September 2 the 470-page report that portrays the 2003 “Rose Revolution” as “a coup” and squarely condemns the rule of the United National Movement (UNM) from 2004 to 2012. It holds the UNM administration responsible for serious human rights abuses, blames it for provoking the August 2008 war with Russia, and for politically influencing the military operations as the war unfolded to a disastrous result. What is more, the report also accuses present-day opposition parties and NGOs of undermining Georgia’s national interests in cahoots with UNM. GD said it would ask the Constitutional Court (which it controls) to ban those parties.
In the meantime, fresh cases are reaching Strasbourg: the European Court of Human Rights registered a joint application challenging Georgia’s FARA. All the while, NGO leaders were being questioned in an (obviously trumped-up) “sabotage” probe.
Now look at this: Bowling for both teams?
A group of pro-Kremlin Georgians met with Denis Pushilin, head of the occupation authorities in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which included the well-known Kremlin associates from the Georgian diaspora in Moscow (and some from Tbilisi). Among them, Paata Abuladze was identified by Georgian media as the brother-in-law of Tbilisi Mayor and GD Secretary General Kakha Kaladze. Pushilin described Abuladze as representing the ruling Georgian Dream party. Abuladze denies he was visiting on the party’s behest, but his two sons are fighting on the Russian side. A tempting topic for the opposition to spin, certainly, but there is considerable uncertainty about the facts or their importance. We have the full(er) story here.
Oneliners
GD-elected President Mikheil Kavelashvili penned an open letter to Donald Trump, regretting the U.S. administration’s “passivity” and the “Deep State” dominance in Georgia.
Khazaradze snapped at TV Pirveli anchor Inga Grigolia when she asked about insinuations of a backroom deal with GD. Wagging his finger, the ex-banker said journalists shouldn’t “speak from the [moral] pedestal.” Note: Khazaradze is thought to be at least partially bankrolling TV Pirveli.
An anonymous Brussels source told RFE/RL that the Georgian government’s response to the EU concerns “fails to address the EU’s concerns.” RFE/RL’s Georgian Service has seen the letter.
Another denied entry to Georgia: Javid Ahmedov, 26, an Azerbaijani student pursuing a master’s degree in journalism at a Tbilisi university, was denied entry to Georgia, like many before him.
SSSG nabbed the deputy governor for Dusheti, Tianeti, Mtskheta, and Kazbegi municipalities on bribery charges.
Police said they detained 30 people linked to organized crime ( a.k.a “Thieves’ World”),
Batumi Police Chief Irakli Dgebuadze, notorious for his role in the Mzia Amaglobeli Case, was reassigned (promoted?) to Tbilisi as a coordinator of Georgia’s police attaches abroad.
Polls, polls, polls
Majority would blame GD, Ivanishvili if EU visa-free lost: A CRRC poll found 78% of Georgians believe losing visa-free travel to the EU would be damaging, and 51% would blame the ruling Georgian Dream party and its patron Bidzina Ivanishvili. Full results here.
Plurality of surveyed EU voters back Georgia’s membership: A Eurobarometer survey fielded in February–March showed 46% of EU citizens would support Georgia’s accession once it meets all conditions, while 43% would oppose. Support was highest in Sweden (71%) and lowest in Austria (64% against). Full results are here.
OTD: From Civil.ge’s Archives
In last year’s dispatch, our Nini Gabritchidze recalled a chilling night in western Georgia from the dark 90s: “At 2:30 a.m. on September 8, 1993, a passenger train left the station in the western Georgian town of Sachkhere and rolled downhill. It was night, it was dark, but the train was not a night train: it was making regular day trips to carry commuters between Sachkhere and Kutaisi along a mostly hilly and winding railway line, passing along the way a traditional “manganese section” linking the mining town of Chiatura to Zestaphoni, where the ores are processed into ferroalloys. But on that night, the train was supposed to be staying at the station. A few passengers were also resting in the carriages, either waiting for daylight to return to their villages after arriving from Kutaisi or arriving early so as not to miss their trip later in the morning. The passengers were there, but not the drivers. Both the engineer and his assistant had left the train for a more civilized night’s sleep in the nearby apartment. But the train didn’t seem to care. It was headed for the ride of its life and clearly didn’t want anyone to give it instructions.” Read the full story here.
Visual politics:
Georgian Dream’s newly approved State Security Service chief, Mamuka Mdinaradz,e and Interior Minister, Geka Geladze, visited Patriarch Ilia II with their families on September 6, 2025.
Photo: State Security Service of Georgia/Facebook