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Repression on Repeat: From Kyiv to Minsk to Tbilisi

Last October, parliamentary elections were held in Georgia. Many considered them as important as a referendum because Georgian citizens were asked to choose between the ruling Georgian Dream, a Euroskeptic party with authoritarian ambitions and the pro-European opposition.

After highly controversial elections and a legitimacy crisis both at the domestic and international levels, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that Georgia had paused negotiations with Western partners about European integration. Yet, according to Article 78 of the 1995 Georgian constitution, “the constitutional bodies shall take all measures within the scope of their competencies to ensure the full integration of Georgia into the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization”. This decision to pause negotiations about EU integration was immediately rejected by large swaths of society.

Protests began with chants and with flags waved in the capital, Tbilisi, but were met with immediate repression. The government used disproportionate power against hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters. Regular use of tear gases, water cannons, and physical violence against unarmed protesters was daily life for Tbilisi at the end of 2024. According to Human Rights Watch, minors and journalists were among the injured. Several oppositional politicians and journalists were attacked by unofficial gangs encouraged by Georgian Dream. Video footage confirms that the repression was systemic, not isolated accidents—and some of victims of this repression publicly spoke about their ordeal.

Georgian Dream has increased fines for participating in protests, restricted face covering, and seized solidarity funds, which were supporting protesters with legal fees. The administrative imprisonment penalty has been tripled. More than 60 protestants are waiting for their final court decision. Proof that legal institutions of Georgia, such as the court and prosecutors’ office, are politicized is that not a single policeman or Titushka (hired provocateurs to intimidate or attack protesters) was imprisoned or fined.

For those participating or watching closely, it felt like a déjà vu. Echoes of Kyiv and Minsk were heard. It was the clash between democracy and authoritarianism, European integration and occupation.

In Kyiv in 2014, Viktor Yanukovych betrayed Ukrainians’ European dream. Yanukovych’s seeking closer ties with Russia was answered by Euromaidan. Fighting for freedom and Europeanisation was met with bullets. The bravery of Ukrainians led to victory, but at what cost?  108 civilians were killed.

In Minsk, in 2020, the illusion of an election was held. Hundreds of thousands started protesting to reclaim their voice, but the regime also responded with repression. These events led to the regime increasing penalties for participating in protests, mandating prior authorization for mass events, and restricting media freedom—further consolidating dictatorship in Belarus.

And now, In Tbilisi, the echoes get louder. Georgia shares both dimensions of the Belarus and Ukraine processes: anti-Europeanism, pro-Russian stances, and threats to constitutional rules and democratic principles. To what extend did the Georgian Dream Party model some of its repression tactics from other post-soviet authoritarians?

Propaganda is a strong instrument in the hands of dictators. As was the case in Belarus, “governmental” propaganda in Georgia has branded everyone protesting as foreign agents and traitors. Georgian Dream also avoids answering public demand by using conspiracy theories, referring to the existence of a deep state and a so-called “Global War Party.”

As noted by Levitski and Ziblatt (2018), democracy does not fail overnight—it takes manipulated elections, eroded and politicized institutions, and normalization of state violence. According to the V-dem report, 2025, 2024 was the final point for democracy to break down in Georgia, as the country faced the largest one-year decline since 2023 and was granted the status of electoral autocracy instead of electoral democracy as before. This outcome was planned for years.  The “Foreign agent” law, or so-called “Russian Law,” adopted in May 2024, was a clear signal that Georgian Dream was preparing for repression as early as last year. This law aims to marginalize or even criminalize civil society and is almost identical to the Russian or Belorussian legislation on foreign agent. It brands civil society funded by other countries or organizations as foreign agents, allowing the government to monitor NGOs, fine them, and marginalize them.  HRW considers it a major factor in the growing human rights crisis in the country and an effort to discredit and dismantle accountability mechanisms.

Georgia’s post-election repression can not be discussed as an isolated case—but through the logic of authoritarian learning, where regimes copy each other and evolve together. In his recent book, The Authoritarian International (2023), Stephen Hall argues that authoritarianism spreads like a strategy, as regimes observe each other, adapt, and share the fear of democratization or collapse of power.

The Georgian case blends the brutality of Minsk protests and the betrayal of people from Kyiv, but the infrastructure of repression uses laws, languages, and approaches which are imprints from Moscow. Russia’s soft power creates the perfect environment for pro-Russian regimes to learn from each other. The learning process was not simply reactive but built upon “foreign agent laws,” politicized court, and anti-European rhetoric. These are not local inventions but tools imported from other regimes. Authoritarian learning is not just reactive but geopolitical, as regimes share tactics under the Russian umbrella. What connects Tbilisi to Kyiv and Minsk is not only repression but also geopolitical stakes behind the process. Therefore, even if processes might sound like domestic crises, they are fronts of broad confrontation over the future of democracy in post-soviet countries.

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