On 28 November last year, the man many Georgian's refer to as their 'so-called Prime Minister', Irakli Kobakhidze, announced that the ruling party, Georgian Dream, was pausing the country's participation in the EU membership process until 2028. Supporters of Georgian democracy poured onto the streets, where they were met over the next two weeks with a violent response from state security. Georgians continue to protest, despite further repressive laws designed to discourage peaceful protest and undermine civil society, the democratic opposition and Georgia's remaining independent media.

Stephen Matthews, a writer and filmmaker based in the UK, speaks to those involved in the peaceful protests and the wider opposition to authoritarianism in Georgia.

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Who is Bidzina Ivanishvili? What are his politics? And how did he rise to power?

The billionaire founder of Georgian Dream made his money in Russia in the 1990s, and retains business interests and political contacts in the Russian Federation. In this episode, we chart Ivanishvili's 'long game', from his funding of the UNM, to his strategic philanthropy, his recognition of the desire for multi-party coalition politics and his first steps on the road to state capture.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'A strange kind of love' charts Georgian Dreams journey from the 2016 parliamentary 'landslide' that masked deep voter dissatisfaction; to apparent progress on European integration that feels now like a calculated attempt at treading water; through growing police brutality, vote buying, and finally the mask is off.

In 2016, the Georgian Dream increased its parliamentary majority, but opinion polls recorded all-time high dissatisfaction with the direction in which the country was heading. As public protests grew, the explicit vote-buying which decided the 2018 presidential election further undermined trust in GD. The appearance of Sergei Gavrilov, a member of the Russian Duma, sparked major protests which were violently suppressed, leaving hundreds injured. While COVID halted the protests temporarily, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine led the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili to show his true colours.

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In 2022, the campaign to villify civil society intensified. The Georgian Dream fake news machine went into overdrive. False claims about NGO finance and the personal wealth and beliefs of senior leaders appeared on an almost daily basis. Posters appeared identifying those running some of the country's most high-profile NGOs, and questioning their commitment to Georgia. These very public attacks were followed by threats and physical violence, as the target audience for this propaganda took the law into their own hands.

In 2023, Georgian Dream attempted to introduce the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, aka The Foreign Agents Law or simply the 'Russia Law' due to its striking resemblance to a 2012 Russian Federation Law which sought to choke opposition in that country.

In this episode, we hear from two women who targeted by Georgian Dream - Nino Dolidze, who was at the time Executive Director of ISFED, the independent election observer, and Eka Gigauri, Executive Director of Transparency International Georgia, which focuses on exposing corruption. The journalist Anna Gvarishvili, Democracy Defenders co-founder Gvantsa Samkharadze and Droa Party politician Marika Mikiashvili help to explain the Russia Law and its implications.

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On 6 August 2025, Mzia Amaglobeli, a journalist and the co-founder of the independent news platforms Netgazeti and Batumelebi, was sentenced to two years in prison. The provocation, arrest, and ill-treatment of a respected journalist brought fresh international attention to Georgian Dream’s attempts to silence independent media. The absurd show trial that followed was supposed to intimidate all journalists, but in reality it did more to highlight the absence of justice in Georgia - disproportionate charges, a captured judiciary, a parade of underlings and stooges pushed out of the shadows to deliver under-rehearsed, sham testimony, to the point that you wonder if this is part of the show of force: 'Look what we can do, we don’t even have to try anymore.' While Mzia’s trial may have briefly drawn interest from West of the Black Sea, Georgian Dream’s pincer movement, simultaneously undermining independent media and making life intolerable for individual journalists has been years in the making.

With Anna Gvarishvili, Mariam Nikuradze, Irma Dimitradze and Zaza Abashidze.

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