What happened in Sakartvelo (Georgia)?

Disclaimer: Out of respect for the Georgian (Kartvelian) people, we will use the name of their state as requested by the Kartvelians themselves - Sakartvelo.

People who don't live in their own selfish and unempathetic bubble have been watching the scene of protests in Sakartvelo and the police brutally dispersing them for days now, and these protests were particularly widespread in 2023, following the adoption of a law modelled on Russia's ‘foreign agents’ law, and in 2024, following the Georgian Dream party's rigging of the parliamentary elections. So what is going on there? Let's try to figure it out.

The first and most important thing to understand. Sakartvelo is a parliamentary republic. It became such in 2018. That is, everything here is decided exclusively by the parliamentary majority. That is why parliamentary elections play a much more important role here than, for example, in Russia or Ukraine (although in Ukraine, the parliament is also the highest legislative body, the mentality of Ukrainians does not allow them to understand that parliamentary elections are much more important than presidential ones).

Background.

Sakartvelo, after the collapse of the USSR, remained one of the poorest republics. The , the War in Abkhazia and the South Ossetia War, separatism in these territories supported by Russia, and the partial loss of these territories led to the economic decline of Sakartvelo. The corrupt and partly pro-Russian government of Eduard Shevardnadze and his Union of Citizens of Georgia party led to a continuation of this economic decline. This all came to a halt in 2003 when election fraud was spotted during the regular parliamentary elections, leading to the . The revolutionaries won, Shevardnadze resigned and re-elections were held in 2004.

The 2004 presidential election resulted in the victory of pro-European politician , and his party, the , won an absolute majority of seats in the parliamentary elections. Saakashvili's rule was followed by a rapid period of reforms. You can find out more about this in this video by Russian oppositionist, who currently resides in Israel, publicist, blogger on socio-political issues Maxim Katz.

Saakashvili solved the problem of Adjarian separatism - during the Adjara crisis, he dealt with the Russophile separatist government of Aslan Abashidze, who fled to Russia after the crisis, without firing a shot. The Autonomous Republic of Adjara fully secured its autonomy within Sakartvelo, and it did not regret it. In just a few years, Batumi, the capital of Adjara, became one of the most attractive tourist cities.

In 2007, protests began against Saakashvili's government. He was accused of human rights violations and the murder of Sandro Girgvliani. The United National Council, which led the protests, included pro-Russian parties, and pro-Russian Kartvelians TV channels supported the protests. The protests were suppressed by force, and Saakashvili called for re-elections.

And in the 2008 re-election, Saakashvili wins again. In 2008, the Russian-Georgian war breaks out. Saakashvili attacks some positions in the separatist and Russian-puppet Republic of South Ossetia. Russia, which had been preparing for a full-scale war with Sakartvelo (as Saakashvili had stated in an interview (video, text) to Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Hordon in 2010), together with the Russian-puppet Republic of Abkhazia, declares war (which it called the ‘Operation to Enforce Peace’) on Sakartvelo.

In an interview with Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Hordon, Mikheil Saakashvili talks about how the war began and was prepared in 2008.

The war lasted from 1 to 16 August and ended with the signing of a peace treaty - the South Ossetia War ceasefire agreement (called the Medvedev-Sarkozy Plan in Russian historiography). Sakartvelo completely lost the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

And what about after Saakashvili?

By the end of his term, Saakashvili and the United National Movement were losing popularity. In the 2012 parliamentary elections, the newly formed Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia party, which was created by a Russian oligarch of Georgian origin and a Georgian Russophile politician, (known in Russia as Boris Ivanishvili), gained a majority, and Giorgi Margvelashvili, a member of the same party, won the presidential election. The party was created to oppose the United National Movement and Saakashvili and has consistently stated its commitment to the EU. In many ways, the party played on feelings of nostalgia in order to undermine the reformist benefits of the United National Movement party. Initially, it did not express any strong Russophile positions, but rather advocated pragmatism.

Saakashvili entered Ukrainian politics after his term, tried to reform Ukraine, then was expelled from Ukraine by the old political elites due to his opposition activities after resigning as an advisor to the President of Ukraine and the head of the Odesa Oblast' State Administration, but was returned by the Zelens'kyy government. In Ukraine, he organised the Movement of New Forces party, which is opposed to Poroshenko, and during the 2019 parliamentary and presidential elections in Ukraine, Saakashvili and the Movement of New Forces called for voting for Zelens'kyy and the Servant of the People party. In 2021, Saakashvili returned to Sakartvelo, where he was arrested. Some experts believe that Russia was also involved in Saakashvili's arrest, and in 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognised him as a political prisoner.

One of the most popular exchanges between Saakashvili (then Advisor to the President of Ukraine) and Avakov (then Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine) in 2015.

With its populist slogans, the party promised voters accession to the EU and rapprochement with the West, while its actions were pro-Russian. Thus, there were protests against this party in 2019 and 2021. You can read more about the deception of the Georgian Dream in the Russian opposition journalism project, currently based in the Netherlands, Prodolzheniye sleduyet follows: video and text.

In 2018, Salome Zurabishvili won the presidential election, running on the Georgian Dream coalition. Although her claims that Sakartvelo was responsible for the 2008 Russian-Georgian war caused controversy, Zurabishvili has never been pro-Russian. This caused a conflict with the Georgian Dream, which in 2022-2023 restricted Zurabishvili's activities (including banning her from visiting Ukraine) and tried to impeach her. However, with the beginning of the Full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia and Belarus, Zurabishvili took a clear pro-Ukrainian position, while the Georgian Dream government discredited Ukraine and even tried to accuse her of preparing a coup together with Saakashvili.

And what's going on there now?

This reached its peak in 2023. The Kartveli parliament, where the pro-Russian Georgian Dream and the Russophile People's Power gained a majority, passed a ‘’ that was exactly like the Russian one. In 2023, Kartvelians began protests. The protests were dispersed by force, but the parliament agreed to reject the law. In 2024, the parliament once again approved the same law, and new protests began, which, however, were also dispersed by force. President Zurabishvili supported all the protests and tried to veto the laws. Former President Mikheil Saakashvili also supported the protests.

And so, on 26 October 2024, regular parliamentary elections were held in Sakartvelo. The opposition parties that did not support the Georgian Dream's course towards Russia united in the Coalition for Change coalition, while the United National Movement party stood separately from this coalition. However, as a result of fraud, the Georgian Dream once again gained an absolute majority. This triggered another round of protests that began on 28 October and continue to this day. On 28 November, the Georgian Dream government announced that it was suspending negotiations on EU membership until 2028. The Georgian Dream Government is still trying to discredit Ukraine, for example, on 30 November, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze stated that ‘Everyone was once again convinced that ‘National Maidan’ will not take place in Georgia. For the third year already, specific European politicians and bureaucrats, who failed to achieve the Ukrainianisation of Georgia, are constantly trying to use the status of the candidate and the issue of opening negotiations to weaken the country, so-called provoke polarisation and artificially depopulate society.’.

On 14 December, presidential elections are due to take place, and the Georgian Dream has already nominated Russian footballer of Georgian origin Mikheil Kavelashvili as a candidate. Since the parties opposed to Georgian Dream called for a boycott of any further elections, they did not nominate candidates for the presidential election, and thus Kavelashvili automatically became president without an election.

President Zurabishvili said at the protests on 28 November:

"Do you serve Russia or Georgia? To whom did you take an oath? I'm interested in the answer. Are you not answering to the president? You don't think about the future? No country, no children?"

In 2025, BBC World Service published an investigation claiming that during the crackdown on protests in November–December 2024, the police added a chemical substance to the water in water cannons — α-bromobenzyl cyanide, known as camite — a chemical that was actually used during the First World War. According to the investigation, this substance could have caused severe burns and long-term respiratory symptoms among protesters. However, the Russophile State Security Service of Georgia (SSG) officially rejected the claim that ‘World War I chemicals’ were used and stated that only standard CS gas (a tear gas agent) commonly used by law enforcement agencies around the world was used. The SSG noted that no prohibited agents were included in domestic purchases.

On 4 October 2025, protesters in Tbilisi almost managed to seize the Presidential Palace. According to the Kartvelian media outlet Newsgeorgia, there were thousands of protesters in Tbilisi at that time. Some of the demonstrators tried to break through to the Presidential Palace (Orbeliani Palace) and partially damaged the fence, but were unable to seize the building because the police used water cannons, tear gas and pepper spray to disperse them, as well as detaining participants. According to police, dozens of people were detained in the following days (at least 13 as of 6 October), and the police also reported injuries to both protesters and police officers. The authorities called it an attempt to overthrow or subvert the constitutional order; some of the organisers were later charged with fabricated allegations of conspiracy/attempted ‘coup d'état’.

Protests in Sakartvelo, albeit not on the same scale as in 2023-2024, continue, and Sakartvelo is engulfed in a serious political crisis. On one side are the pro-European parties Coalition for Change, Unity – National Movement, Strong Georgia, For Georgia, For the People, Freedom Square, and Federalists, joined by former President Salome Zurabishvili, and on the other, the Russophile parties Georgian Dream and People's Power, led by Russophile Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, Russophile President Mikheil Kavelashvili and Russian-Georgian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, supported directly by Russia and Russophile parties, such as the Fidesz–KDNP Party Alliance from Hungary.

Only time will tell who the Kartvelians will serve. We can only wish them good luck.

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