Behind the façade of democracy, Georgian Dream is constructing a consolidated authoritarian regime and police state.
An illusion is something that appears true but is, in fact, misleading or false. Today, it is one of the most potent weapons wielded by the Georgian Dream regime against both the Georgian people and the international community. And it’s not a weak weapon. Often, those on the receiving end believe in the illusion more than in reality, or they simply choose to want to believe it.
For years, the regime crafted the illusion of democracy. Tragically, this illusion was accepted as reality both inside and outside Georgia. What we were left with was a hollow façade of democracy, behind which a police state and fully consolidated authoritarianism were being methodically constructed.
For years, the regime projected the illusion of being pro-Western and pro-European. Again, many — domestically and internationally — chose to believe it. The result? Not even a pretense remains. Georgia is now governed by a regime that is openly anti-Western, one that has shifted its political alignment toward authoritarian countries and has explicitly rejected deeper integration with the EU.
OC Media
The regime has also nurtured an illusion of humaneness and a commitment to human rights. But in reality, we face a regime willing to threaten the freedom and health of its opponents just to maintain power.
Another illusion has been the supposed incompetence of the regime. For years, it has fostered an image of clumsiness and amateurism. But this, too, is a façade. In truth, we face an extremely cunning regime, one that holds the fate of Georgia in its hands and plays poker with the world’s perceptions.
Today, the regime presents an illusion of restraint, as if it lacks the capacity to implement a repressive system fully. It pretends that it cannot or will not go further. In reality, by using tactics of strategic retreat and calculated inaction, an anesthesia of sorts, the regime neutralises opposition without immediate pain or visible violence.
A part of Georgian civil society and opposition today resembles a patient at the dentist’s office. Under local anesthesia, they know exactly what is being done to them, but they feel nothing and wait for the procedure to end, believing, perhaps, that it is bearable or temporary.
But the outcome is already set. Even within the illusion of partial freedom, even as the regime avoids mass arrests or total censorship, the very foundations of democracy are being dismantled before our eyes: media, civil society, opposition voices, and freedom of speech. Many, both inside and outside the country, still believe these remaining spaces of freedom are signs of regime weakness. In reality, they are carefully managed façades, tolerated only so long as they do not threaten power.
Meanwhile, the regime methodically purges all elements it cannot control, rejecting dissent as if it were a foreign body to be expelled from an authoritarian organism.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
Alongside repression and intimidation, the polarisation of opponents has become a core strategy. By dividing, infiltrating, and weakening resistance forces, the regime paves the way for total domination, silencing, subjugating, and ultimately controlling all aspects of public life.
There is only one path forward: consolidate what remains of democratic energy and confront the regime for what it truly is, an autocracy. We must abandon all illusions.
This can only happen through uncompromising international pressure on the regime and support for civil society, and domestic resistance that refuses to be infiltrated, divided, or pacified. The window is closing. The cost of inaction is too high. The illusion must be broken before it becomes the only reality left about Georgia.
