"This is the worst government in Georgia’s post-independence history" – opinion
Opinion about Georgian Dream
Security researcher Giorgi Shaishmelashvili assesses the current situation in Georgia, arguing that the defining feature of the ruling authorities is a mix of corruption and a brutal repressive apparatus.
Giorgi Shaishmelashvili: “Georgian Dream is the worst government in Georgia’s post-independence history.
Leaving aside the military coup, we have had two changes of government. The main factor behind the discontent and mobilisation against Eduard Shevardnadze’s government was corruption. Against Mikheil Saakashvili, it was the repressive apparatus. The current government is a vivid combination of both: a corrupt regime backed by a brutal repressive machine.”
But the key point is that Shevardnadze’s corruption and Saakashvili’s repressions unfolded against the backdrop of major national projects.
Shevardnadze was putting Georgia on the political map through pipelines and other large-scale ventures. In a war-torn country with weak state institutions, corruption functioned as a bad but reliable “social contract” to maintain stability.
Saakashvili, meanwhile, was building state institutions, fighting corruption and organised crime, and deepening Euro-Atlantic integration. For that, he relied on a repressive apparatus.
Still, of course, we were never going to tolerate Shevardnadze’s corruption or Saakashvili’s machine of repression indefinitely. The question now is: how long will we endure both at once under Georgian Dream?”
News in Georgia
