Opinion: “Ivanishvili regime hysterically defends dignity it does not possess”
Commenting on the administrative arrests of several young activists in Georgia, Ilia State University professor and literary critic Zaal Andronikashvili stated that the ruling party, Georgian Dream, is “hysterically trying to defend a dignity it does not have and cannot possibly possess.”
On 30 May, following a complaint by Georgian Dream MP Mariam Lashkhi, two activists—Lika Lortkipanidze and Tatia Apriamashvili—were sentenced to 12 days of administrative detention. According to the official version, on 17 May 2025, they insulted Lashkhi at a café in Tbilisi, shouting: “Freedom for political prisoners, not for the Russian regime—down with Russia’s slaves.” In addition, Tornike Skhvitaridze, the brother of prisoner of conscience Saba Skhvitaridze, was sentenced to five days in detention for allegedly “insulting” police officer Mirian Kavtaradze.
Zaal Andronikashvili:
“The Ivanishvili regime is cartoonish in appearance. This has both positive and negative aspects.
The positive is that its caricature-like nature will go down in history accordingly.
The negative is that this caricature is a mask—one that often conceals the extremely serious, burdensome, destructive and sometimes irreparable harm the regime inflicts on Georgia, Georgian society, and the citizens of Georgia.
The social fabric has been torn apart. It will take years to mend. The regime feels ‘offended’ and responds with hysteria. The severe trauma it inflicts on political opponents and their families is one of the many ways it damages the social structure.
With the help of the police, the regime defends a dignity it does not and cannot possess. Its aggressive reaction to the word ‘slave’ comes precisely from a full awareness of how accurately that word applies to itself.
‘Slave’ in this context is neither an insult nor a provocation. A servant of the regime is inevitably a slave, for the simple reason that in dictatorships, no other forms of relationship exist.
Anyone who wants to understand how this slavery works should read—or reread—Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Feast of the Goat, which depicts the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. In that novel, not only scoundrels, but also intelligent and brave people willingly give up their dignity, enduring daily humiliation and brutal insults—towards themselves and their families—in exchange for status and comfort.
A regime can imprison or kill its opponents, but the harshest, most unbearable, and prolonged torture is endured by the regime’s own slaves. These are not necessarily the same forms of humiliation Llosa describes, but they symbolically represent the unbearable daily pain of losing one’s dignity—a pain even the staff maintaining Ivanishvili’s regime feel every day.
That is why, paradoxical as it may sound, it is precisely those who allegedly ‘insult’ the regime’s enforcers—and are arrested for it—who are actually defending their dignity.”
