And then there are elections themselves. By 2024, GD had captured the judiciary, ombudsman, and election administration. The infamous “corridor of fear” greeted voters outside the polls with regime loyalist and surveillance. Ballot secrecy was a myth. 10/16
As Natia Mezvrishvili showed in her Beyond the Ballot Box analysis, Georgia’s elections aren’t stolen on election day. They are stolen years in advance through legal manipulation, surveillance, and institutional capture. 11/16 substack.com/inbox/post/1...
Repression is growing. Reports from Amnesty, HRW, and the US State Dept. show escalating human rights violations: arbitrary arrests, beatings of protesters, surveillance of activists, intimidation of journalists. 12/16 www.amnesty.org/en/location/...
This regime is not only authoritarian. It is expensive. Every ghost job, bribe, propaganda channel, and security operation drains the Georgian taxpayer. Citizens pay the bill. Ivanishvili and his enablers pocket the profit. 13/16
This is why sanctions must be strategic, not symbolic. Targeting Ivanishvili alone is insufficient. To weaken Georgian Dream, the West must sanction the fixers, donor-linked companies, corrupt judges and offshore networks that sustain the system. 14/16
For a deeper dive, read my Substack analysis: “Repression, dependency, and the survival of Georgian Dream” 🔗 terjehelland1.substack.com/p/georgias-p... 15/16
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