Tbilisi, Georgia (AP) – For almost every day, Gotachanturia has joined the government in the Georgia Legislature, and for almost a year, That increasingly oppressive policy. He did this despite massive arrests and police violence against demonstrators.
And citizen teachers continue to march, even as they have been fined an astonishing $102,000 from the protest. That’s about ten times more than what the average Georgian dynasty earns in a year.
“We’ve said we’ll be here until the end, but we’re still here,” Shanturia told The Associated Press this week after attending yet another demonstration in the Tbilisi capital.
The protest began when the government halted consultations on participation in the European Union. The move came after years of ruling Georgian’s dream I won the election The alleged opposition party was equipped.
Large and small gatherings continue despite multifaceted government crackdowns through laws targeting protesters, rights groups, non-governmental organizations and independent media.
This weekend’s protests are planned to coincide with local elections.
The 3.7 million suppression in the South Caucasus countries was compared with Russia, a powerful neighbor and former imperial ruler. President Vladimir Putin has taken the objection. Georgian dreams are accused of leading the country into a trajectory of Moscow’s influence.
Human Rights Watch says Georgia is struggling with a “rights crisis.” Giorgi Gogia, the group’s associate director for Europe and Central Asia, said it is unprecedented in the country’s independent history and is steadily escalating.
But Georgia’s vibrant civil society is being pushed back, and the question is “who will blink first?” Gogia said. If it was public and civil society, they could wake up in authoritarian countries. “This will be a huge change from what Georgia has been doing,” he added.
Fines, assaults, prisons
Ketuna Kerashvili joined the rally in rainy Tbilisi on Wednesday despite the fact that her 30-year-old brother Irakli was arrested in December and convicted of public order chaos and sentenced to two years in prison. He refused to file charges as a suspect.
Kerashvili told the AP that her brother’s trial was “difficult to see.”
“All the boys and girls currently in prison were trying to protect our country from the pro-Russian military and the Russian government,” she said.
After a largely peaceful protest in late November 2024, violent crackdown escalated, with more than 400 people detained within two weeks. At least 300 people reported severe beating and other abuse, according to Amnesty International. The group claimed that many of the atrocities became invisible during detention.
Between April 2024 and August 2025, more than 60 people were jailed in protests, and at least 76 people faced criminal prosecution in protests. The number of prosecutions is now high, with more people likely being slapped with sudden fines.
Chanturia said she was fined 56 times for allegedly obstructing the road. He said he had not paid them and was not intended. Under new regulations, if he fails, he could land in prison.
HRW’s Gogia says it’s difficult to estimate how many people were fined, but he estimates that it could be thousands. Penalties are issued via automation, such as highway tolls and traffic fines, and authorities use facial recognition surveillance cameras.
Sometimes the punished people didn’t protest, but they just happened to be at the rally. Mariam Nikuradze, a well-known journalist and co-founder of independent news site OC Media, has won 20,000 Lari (approximately $7,300) with fines after being quoted four times for allegedly obstructing the road. She said she was simply covering the demonstration.
Javid Ahmemedov, an Azerbaijani journalism student, told the Associated Press that he was filming at the July protests when the cameras spotted him. He learned that he was fined 10,000 lari (approximately $3,700) while returning to Georgia last month to complete his research at the Georgia Public Service Institute.
He was eventually denied entry, putting his degree and completion of his US scholarship at risk.
“I have to be in Georgia,” he told the German Associated Press. “But that’s a big question.”
It targets opposition parties, media and NGOs
Authorities are also targeting politicians and political parties in key opposition parties, along with rights activists and the media.
In the summer, eight opposition leaders were jailed on charges of refusing to cooperate with the Congressional investigation, and two more arrested on different charges. Opposition parties said these arrests were politically motivated.
In August, authorities frozen bank accounts for seven rights groups. The prosecutor’s office claimed to be providing demonstrators with gear such as masks, pepper spray and protective glasses that were used in the clash with police. The organization said Gear is for journalists covering the gathering.
The government is trying to create a story about an attempt to overthrow the government, violate the constitution, and engage in obstruction and violence, said Gram Imnaze, a Centre for Social Justice, a group whose funds have been frozen.
Another goal is to “stop all independent actors in the country, limit or reduce the democratic free space within the country, and make independent actors, such as NGOs, the media or individual activists, independent actors who cannot support democracy,” he said.
George Andream has made clear plans to file lawsuits against several independent television channels and petition the Constitutional Court to declare major opposition parties, the united state movement and others unconstitutional.
Prime Minister Irakuri Kobakitze Last month, the lawsuit covers everyone believed to be under the United National Movement. Foreign influences – “To all of them. To everyone, to everyone.”
He claimed that the protests were orchestrated and funded from overseas.
“Foreign agents cannot destabilise the situation in the country,” he added, referring to laws that can label NGOs, the media and individuals as “foreign agents.”
The target group remains rebellious. Seven groups with frozen funds have pledged to fight authoritarian rules and Russian-style laws using all available legal mechanisms to ensure that opponents of our constitutional democratic and European paths will not be able to achieve their goals.
We are calling for EU pressure on the government
Gogia says the crisis represents a “stricken departure” from Georgia’s attempt to become a modern, independent custody country with a very vibrant civil society and human rights community.
Last month, HRW and other international rights groups urged the EU and its member states to “use all diplomatic and legal tools at their disposal to put human rights abuses and pressure on Georgia officials of human rights defendants and civil society activists and members of law enforcement in law, prosecutors and law enforcement.
Despite suspending consultations to join the EU, Georgian authorities “are concerned about what the EU is doing and what they say,” Gogia said, adding that the public has overwhelmingly supported membership and the government knows that.
Kobakhidze said this week that the EU membership goals through 2030 are “realistic and achievable.”
However, a European Commission official told the Associated Press that “the oppressive actions taken by Georgian authorities are far from what candidate countries would expect.”
“The EU is ready to consider returning to Georgia’s EU route if authorities take credible steps to reverse the Democratic backslide,” said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to comment publicly.
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Litvinova was reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Sam McNeill, an Associated Press journalist in Brussels, contributed to the report.
