‘I choose freedom in my homeland’: Georgia’s democracy under scrutiny before EU status decision

Georgia’s government says it hopes for a “historic decision” from the European Commission this week to advance its bid for EU membership, but Nika Gvaramia is not convinced

The former Georgian justice minister, outspoken journalist and television executive was jailed for 3½ years in 2022, in a case that many western capitals and media freedom groups saw as punishment for his criticism of the government and the ruling Georgian Dream party.

His imprisonment in May last year was a factor in the EU’s decision a month later to withhold candidate status from Georgia while granting it to Ukraine and Moldova, other former Soviet states that had long trailed Tbilisi in pursuing reforms and aligning with the West.

Gvaramia is now free after receiving a presidential pardon in a move denounced by the ruling party, but he does not know if that will persuade the commission to propose candidate status for his country in a report to be released on Wednesday – and does not believe that a government which he calls pro-Russian really wants to join the bloc.

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“They don’t want it. They are not allowed by Russia. These kinds of geopolitical decisions are taken not here but in Moscow,” Gvaramia (47) says in Tbilisi, describing his imprisonment as deliberate “sabotage” of the country’s EU hopes by Georgian Dream and its founder, tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is widely regarded as the nation’s de facto ruler.

Gvaramia believes Georgian Dream is posing as a pro-EU party in a country where an overwhelming majority of people want to join the bloc, while acting in ways that will make accession impossible. He argues that this will allow the government to maintain relations with Brussels and Moscow, while blaming the EU for delaying membership and avoiding the kind of huge protests that erupted in Ukraine in 2013-14 over the same issue.

[ In a shaky handwritten letter, Georgia’s former president appeals for help ]

Why else, he asks, would the government have tried this year to pass a Russian-style law to force civil society groups to register as “foreign agents” if they receive more than a fifth of their funding from abroad? And why, when the EU has made “depolarisation” of Georgia’s tense political scene a condition of closer ties, did the government seek to impeach President Salome Zourabichvili last month for visiting EU states without its approval?

“There is no contradiction,” between the government’s actions and pro-EU rhetoric, says Nikoloz Samkharadze, chairman of the foreign relations committee in Georgia’s parliament.

He insists Gvaramia was jailed not over politics but financial misdeeds; that the “foreign agent” law was misrepresented by critics and aimed merely for more transparency in NGO funding; and that Zourabichvili’s unauthorised foreign trips were found to have breached Georgia’s constitution, so a political response was vital to uphold the rule of law.

Samkharadze also defends Georgia’s refusal to join western sanctions against Russia over its devastating invasion of Ukraine, which looks peculiar to many observers given that Moscow’s forces also invaded Georgia in 2008 and still exert de facto control over 20 per cent of its territory.

He says sanctions “would harm Georgia’s national interest and Georgia’s economy but would not to do even miniscule damage to the Russian economy, because Georgia’s trade with Russia is 0.3 per cent of Russia’s overall trade, but almost 13 percent of Georgia’s [overall] trade.

“The major items we export to Russia are not sanctioned, they are agricultural products,” he adds. “So we would harm our own farmers and wine-growing regions … for no obvious reason. It would not support Ukraine in its war in any way but only harm our own people.”

At the same time, Samkharadze claims Georgia is giving full political support to Kyiv, even though government officials have accused the West of trying to drag the country into the Ukraine-Russia war and echoed the Kremlin’s argument that Nato expansion is at the root of the conflict.

Samkharadze says it is “natural” that Ukraine gets preferential treatment from the EU because it is “fighting for its independence and survival and for Europe’s security”, but he regards the decision to withhold candidate status from Georgia last June as “unfair”.

“For the last 30 years we were fighting disinformation and propaganda from Moscow. In the last year we’ve been fighting disinformation and propaganda from the West,” he says of criticism of Georgia’s government.

Samkharadze says much of it is stirred up by Georgia’s main opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), and allies of its founder Mikheil Saakashvili, who was jailed in 2021 on abuse of power charges. Saakashvili says he is a political prisoner and could die behind bars, where he has suffered health problems allegedly linked to poisoning.

“It’s not just about the democratic backsliding of recent years,” Zurab Tchiaberashvili, UNM’s international secretary, says of the European Commission’s looming recommendation on Georgia’s candidate status, which will inform a decision taken next month by EU states. Georgia is one of ten aspirant EU members set to feature in the commission’s enlargement progress report.

“A lot of it is about foreign policy… [Georgia] is not trusted in the same way as before, when it really aligned itself with Europe,” Tchiaberashvili adds.

“On one hand, [EU members] don’t want to reward a government that violates human rights, restricts media and aligns with Russia. On the other hand, postponement [of candidate status] may benefit Russia. It’s a tough call.”

Tchiaberashvili thinks the government “wants [candidate] status, but on its own terms”, without fully implementing 12 priorities listed by the EU last year to strengthen Georgian democracy and the independence of its courts, media and other areas of public life. They include “de-oligarchisation” to cut the influence of vested interests, which appears to be aimed at Ivanishvili, the alleged “shadow leader” of Georgia who made his fortune in Russia.

While respecting Georgia’s sovereignty, the commission’s decision on Wednesday should “make clear to the Georgian people what is required of them”, says Tchiaberashvili, who was a mayor of Tbilisi and a minister of health during UNM’s spell in power from 2004-2012: “If the Georgian people want to integrate in the EU, they have to form a government whose policies will be compatible with EU policies.”

That sets the scene for parliamentary elections next year which Gvaramia says should be “a kind of referendum” on whether Georgia moves towards the West or Russia. He is likely to be at the heart of the battle, “maybe with a new party or a union of different parties and people” or even with the UNM “if it is ready to be renewed and very deeply reformed”.

“What I know precisely is that we have to change this regime. We cannot leave Georgia in a grey zone,” between the West and Russia, he says, describing his country of 3.7 million as a victim “not of bad governance but of authoritarianism”.

“Georgians are not pro-Europeans – we are Europeans. It’s not possible for me to deviate from this as a Georgian patriot… Having a pro-Russian government in Georgia is a tragedy for me and I will fight for victory,” Gvaramia says.

Though he spent a year behind bars and now employs bodyguards to protect his family, Gvaramia says they are all ready for the political fight – particularly his wife Sofia Liluashvili, who led the campaign for his release. “I have absolutely no fear. And my family has no reservations,” he says.

“The most important part of my imprisonment, the heaviest part, was about my family… Now, for the first time in my life, my wife wants me to go back into politics – she was always tough, but now she wants to change everything,” Gvaramia explains.

“I will never leave my country. I love freedom and I love my homeland … and I reject any choice between them. I choose freedom in my homeland.”