2026-04-25
49 分钟The Economist.
Dedicated listeners to the Weekend Intelligence will remember our visit to Georgia not quite two years ago.
It was just after the law on transparency of foreign influence
put forward by the ruling Georgian Dream party went into effect.
This kind of thing is now part of the standard playbook of authoritarians
to choke NGOs and civil society groups.
Georgians saw it, rightly, as a threat to their new status as EU member state candidates.
So they took to the streets in a big way.
Then in November 2024, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the suspension of EU accession talks until 2028,
accusing the European Parliament of blackmail.
This time, even bigger protests.
Tens of thousands filled the streets night after night in the capital Tbilisi and beyond.
Hundreds were detained and reported tortured in custody.
Authorities dusted off a First World War chemical weapon and put it in water cannon used against protesters.
And then they really got to work.
Criminal penalties for foreign-funded organizations.
A government veto over foreign donations.
Broadcasting laws designed to bankrupt independent media.
Opposition parties banned, universities gutted, journalists imprisoned.
Georgians were right to worry two years ago.