In early February, Georgian authorities unveiled new legislation that critics say will increase pressure on the country’s civil society and independent media, and impose further restrictions on public gatherings. The move comes amid a wave of anti-government protests that began after Georgia’s disputed October 2024 parliamentary elections and escalated weeks later when the government moved to halt the country’s efforts to join the EU.
The current crisis reflects widespread tensions in Georgian society, with the ruling Georgian Dream party accused of trying to turn the country away from decades of Euro-Atlantic integration and back into Russia’s orbit. Government officials deny the accusations, saying instead that they are seeking to protect themselves from undue Western influence while avoiding any involvement in the geopolitical confrontation over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In early February, Georgian Dream officials announced that the party planned to draft legislation that would tighten restrictions on foreign-funded media and establish a new code of journalistic ethics that would be overseen by a government agency. Similar legislative initiatives are being prepared for Georgian civil society organizations. Opponents compare the moves to the draconian measures that Putin’s regime has taken over the past twenty-five years to silence domestic opposition in Russia.
As anti-government protests continue to occur in cities across Georgia on a near-daily basis, authorities have recently introduced new laws restricting public gatherings and criminalizing minor protests, such as posting stickers on public property. Hundreds of people have been detained since protests erupted in late 2024, many of whom have reported human rights abuses in custody, including beatings and torture.
Critics say the latest moves are further evidence of the Georgian government’s intent to create a Kremlin-style authoritarian state. In early February, Eka Gigauri, executive director of Transparency International Georgia, told The Associated Press that she believed the government was using the same tactics that Putin’s regime has used against opponents. “There is nothing new in the way they attack civil society activists,” she said. “This happened in Russia many years ago.”
Similar sentiments are echoed by international human rights organizations monitoring the current crisis. “The government is relentlessly dragging the country into an era of repression that is new to Georgia but all too familiar to authoritarian states,” commented Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in January 2025.
In recent months, Georgia’s Western partners have become increasingly vocal in their criticism of the country’s increasingly authoritarian policies and its apparent turn toward Moscow. That Western response has included sanctions against a number of Georgian officials, including the billionaire founder of the Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is widely seen as the country’s de facto leader and the architect of Georgia’s current pro-Kremlin policies. On February 13, the European Parliament adopted a resolution questioning the legitimacy of the current Georgian authorities and calling for new elections to be held in the coming months under international observation.
Meanwhile, relations with Russia continue to improve. Georgia has endeared itself to Moscow in recent years by refusing to participate in Western sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Instead, Georgia has welcomed Russian businesses and been accused of helping the Kremlin circumvent international restrictions imposed in response to the war.
Members of the Georgian Dream party position themselves as the only political force capable of establishing pragmatic relations with Russia. With around twenty percent of Georgia currently occupied by Russia, the threat of renewed Russian military aggression is a highly sensitive issue for Georgian society. Ahead of Georgia’s October 2024 parliamentary elections, Georgian Dream stirred controversy by using campaign posters contrasting peaceful Georgia with war-torn Ukraine as part of campaign messaging that sought to position the vote as a choice between war and peace.
With international attention now firmly focused on events in and around Ukraine, Georgia’s political crisis has slipped from the headlines. But the small country in the southern Caucasus has a geopolitical significance that far outweighs its size. For the past two decades, Georgia has been widely viewed in Western capitals as a post-Soviet success story, but the country’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations are now hanging by a thread. This poses a significant foreign policy challenge for the new Trump administration and for Europe.
The recent crackdown suggests that Georgian authorities are intent on cracking down on domestic opponents and strengthening ties with the Kremlin. If they succeed, it would be a major victory for Vladimir Putin in the standoff between the democratic world and an emerging alliance of authoritarian powers that includes Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
Mercedes Sapuppo is Associate Director of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center.
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