EU Leaders Wag Their Fingers as Georgian Dream Arrests Opposition Leaders
6/25/2025
By: Daniel Miller
In the face of the protests that are still ongoing after 210 days, the illegitimate regime has imprisoned several opposition leaders within 48 hours. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze threatened jail time with anyone who refused to recognize the legitimacy of the revival of the Stalin-era Parliamentary Commission, which seeks to “investigate anything pro-Western,” according to a tweet by Marika Mikiashvili. She also reported that former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili, who also fought in the Battle of Kyiv, was jailed first for refusing to cooperate with the new Parliamentary Commission, a Stalin-era committee that “investigates anything pro-Western.” The Commission also dug up a two-year-old case when he verbally assaulted a neighbor, and is seeking prosecution.
The Commission is now actively pursuing and prosecuting those who are or have been openly critical of the regime, collaborate with internal democratic institutions, or support opposition efforts, accusing them of either state sabotage or serving foreign interests. Six out of nine opposition party leaders are now serving a minimum of seven months in prison, with Giorgi Gakharia to be arrested once he returns from Germany. The only remaining opposition leaders who are free, for now, are Helen Khoshtaria and Tina Bokuchava, whose husband was kidnapped, blindfolded, and threatened for nine hours a couple of weeks ago.
No media are allowed inside the courtrooms anymore. The illegitimate Georgian Dream party is facing its share of internal strife with occasional resignations, with Deputy Minister of Defense Giorgi Liluashvili resigning a couple of days ago.
European Union Foreign Minister Kaja Kallas recently stated the obvious – that the sentences given were disproportionate and sanctions against the ruling judges are “possible.” Instead of calling a long-overdue emergency meeting, she announced that the foreign ministers would discuss the issue during their scheduled meeting in July. This kind of tepid response has become all too common from the EU and is fostering disillusionment with the Georgian people. Sure, Orbán and Fico have been the ones preventing any serious sanctions on party financier and de facto ruler, Bidzina Ivanishvili, along with their efforts to prevent the kind of aid Ukraine needs to defeat Russia, but the EU has done the usual liberal response of stern condemnation and finger wagging. Reformation efforts have been nonexistent since those two bloated fascist sympathizers have made clear that they would be using their veto powers to facilitate the global authoritarian movement.
The demands are simple and continue to grow along with the increasing crackdowns: free EU funds to the illegitimate regime, impose heavy sanctions on Ivanishvili, a new round of parliamentary elections held under international supervision, and fund independent media. The Western democratic world has almost lost its grip on a small country with huge geopolitical implications that could have reverberating effects throughout. Trump doesn’t care and probably has a hard time pointing out where the state of Georgia is located on a map, much less a country in the Caucasus. Europe is now on its own, and the democratic world order is in trouble if it continues to just sit around and wait for something good to happen.