Kalandadze: After Opposition Ban, Even Talk of Theoretical Democracy Is Impossible

Former Deputy Foreign Minister and co-founder of the Chavchavadze Center Nino Kalandadze said on the Palitranews program "Day Newsroom" that the ban on parties was not an unexpected step and that it serves the direct interest of Russia, not just Ivanishvili. She was responding to the Constitutional Court's start of hearing the lawsuit on banning opposition parties.

According to Kalandadze, Russia is trying to draw a clear line between Western and Russian influences, and now this line must pass through Georgia. In her view, Moscow needs Bidzina Ivanishvili for this.

"I have considered Bidzina Ivanishvili a Russian project from the very first day he appeared on the political scene, not in the sense that someone would pursue their own policy in line with Russian interests, but in the sense that he would be steered from Moscow. In 14 years, I have not doubted this view," she said.

According to Kalandadze, since we are talking about declaredly pro-Western parties, Ivanishvili not only bans opponents but also eliminates the pro-Western niche and leaves voters no opportunity to be represented by pro-Western ideology. In her explanation, elections have not been held in Georgia under Ivanishvili for a long time, and after 2022, when Russia began a full-scale consolidation of forces in the region, there has been no talk of elections at all.

In her assessment, removing the part related to Europeanness from Georgia's history, changing history textbooks and developing a monopolized policy on who will control history is not a strategy created in Tbilisi. Kalandadze says this is the Kremlin's strategy, which is meant to spread to the post-Soviet space and to countries that Russia wants to return to its sphere of influence and completely separate from the West.

Kalandadze described the political process in the country as dead. In her view, a political process cannot develop where a person cannot run a campaign without "titushkas", leaders are in prison or in exile, heavyweight political players are neutralized, access to media is extremely limited and there is no access to finances.

On the expected impact on relations with the European Union, Kalandadze said: "The ban on political opposition is the red line after which even talk of theoretical democracy becomes impossible. The democratic framework is being annulled, which means one-party rule is being established". According to her, this step formalizes and declares elections of the kind held in other dictatorial states.

In her explanation, Georgia, despite its candidate status, is no longer part of the EU enlargement policy after 2024, so it cannot have a substantial impact on the final decision. Kalandadze believes that under Ivanishvili, transferring Georgia to another stage formally is not even being considered. She says the audience to whom Putin speaks in Ivanishvili's language is Moscow and the international community.

According to Kalandadze, since coming to power Ivanishvili has been talking about abolishing the "National Movement", that is, abolishing the idea it embodied: Western reforms, pro-European integration, a Western course and a strategy for the democratic development of the country. In her words, this is exactly why that period and its actors are being aggressively demonized.

Kalandadze believes that the decision to ban opposition parties will not remain without a Western response, and relations with Ivanishvili will also worsen. "Relations with Georgia will not improve, and the prospect of restoring dialogue will worsen even further. We can assume that European institutions will be merciless toward the judges of the Constitutional Court themselves, because this is a decision that every judge makes individually, despite Ivanishvili's instructions. With high probability, this group of judges will be added to the number of sanctioned judges", she said.

She also said that relations with the West are frozen, and the higher the level of authoritarian consolidation, the less chance there is that Western economic interest in Georgia will emerge.

Kalandadze also said that "Georgian Dream" needed issues related to political prisoners and party bans for trading with the West. In her assessment, this is evidenced by the fact that the ruling party postponed the announced ban for a certain period and left room for dialogue with the West. According to Kalandadze, the West was ready to engage in some type of dialogue, but not on those issues and not in the form Ivanishvili wanted.

According to her statement, Ivanishvili raises the issue of his own money, frozen accounts and the return of property in negotiations, and trades his personal and financial interests at the expense of the country's interests. Kalandadze says that at this stage, a red line for the European Union is recognizing the 2024 elections as legitimate and declaring the ruling force legitimate, and the West is not willing to go along with this.