1. Ban on protests
Since daily protests began in Georgia in October 2024, authorities have tightened laws against demonstrators.
In December, drivers were banned from organizing roadblocks, under threat of a fine of 1 000 GEL and a yearʼs suspension of their driverʼs license. For comparison, the current average salary in the country is 2 470 GEL. Protesters on foot were banned from carrying weapons, explosives, and lasers, and were also banned from covering their faces and resisting the policeʼs gas weapons. The fine for violating these requirements is 2 000 GEL.
If someone blocks a road in Georgia, each participant in the blockade will have to pay 5 000 GEL (previously it was 500). Even the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen felt this. In October 2025, she came on an official visit to Georgia, during which she attended the protests, and received a fine because the police decided that she was participating in them and blocking the road.
Initially, President Salome Zurabishvili vetoed the new regulations. However, in December 2024, her term expired and Mikheil Kavelashvili won the countryʼs first indirect presidential election. He had no opponents — the opposition boycotted the process. On his first day in office, Kavelashvili signed these and other anti-protest laws.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and President Mikheil Kavelashvili.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
However, all this did not stop the protests. And in October-December 2025, the parliament adopted a whole set of new restrictions:
- Wearing a mask or setting off fireworks at protests is now punishable by 15 days in prison instead of a fine. A repeat incident within 12 months can result in up to a year in prison, and subsequent repeat offenses can result in up to two years.
- Refusing to obey a police order to disperse will now result in imprisonment for up to 60 days in Georgia.
- The ban on blocking roads has also been extended to sidewalks. If the police decide that demonstrators may obstruct pedestrian or transport traffic, the protest is declared illegal. Blocking traffic is punishable by 15 days of arrest (20 for organizers). Repeated violations are punishable by up to a year in prison.
- The first conviction under this article was on January 23: activist Sandro Megrelishvili received 4 days of arrest. Four other activists received 4 or 5 days with him.
- Now, any protest, whether on the road or on the sidewalk, except for spontaneous ones, must be coordinated with the police five days in advance. The Ministry of Internal Affairs can change the route, time, or location of the action.
Protests in Tbilisi on the day of local elections, October 4, 2025. Protests in Tbilisi in March 2026.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
In addition, in February 2025, the country introduced penalties for “insulting” a civil servant in connection with his work. And in June, parliament strengthened the law on defamation and shifted the burden of proof from the plaintiff to the defendant — now he must prove why his words are not defamation.
In addition, the law was made retroactive — it can also be used to punish offenses committed 100 days before the law was adopted. This directly applies to protests, because they often shout something unpleasant for officials.
For example, activist Albi Kordzai was sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest in June 2025 because in April she shouted at Georgian Dream MP Thea Tsulukiani: “Russian woman!”, “Traitor to the Motherland!” and “Antsukhelidze is immortal”.
Giorgi Antsukhelidze is a national hero of Georgia who died from torture in captivity by South Ossetian separatists during the 2008 Russian-Georgian war. Tsulukiani called him “senselessly condemned for the sake of someone’s PR”.
Police detain Albi Kordzai.
A few days before Albi’s arrest, the court had arrested students Tatiya Apriamashvili and Lika Lortkipanidze for 12 days. On May 17, they met the “Georgian Dream” MP Mariam Lashkhi in a cafe and, according to the investigation, began to shout: “Freedom to the regime’s prisoners, not to the Russian regime”, “Down with the slaves of Russia”.
After that, Lashkhi wrote a statement to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, claiming that the activists had insulted a public figure and the values of society. Despite the fact that there were no direct insults directed at Lashkhi, the court decided that the students had insulted her.
According to Transparency International, as of March 2026, 47 protest participants were in prison in Georgia. Their criminal sentences range from two to eight and a half years in prison.
Irakli Tsulaya is the founder of the media platform “Holon” and a member of the opposition party “For Georgia”. Police detained and beat him during protests in November 2024. The court fined Tsulaya 3 000 lari ($1 100) for “disobedience to the police”. Activist Nika Danelia was detained and beaten by police during the same protests. Danelia says about 15 people were beaten while he was lying on the ground. The court fined him 2 500 lari ($930).
2. Ban on money from abroad
According to the "Russian law", non-commercial legal entities and media outlets that are at least 20% funded from abroad became foreign agents. They were obliged to apply to the National Agency of Public Registry and ask to register them as "foreign agents".
They had to submit a declaration every year. For violation — a fine of 25 000 GEL. The Ministry of Justice of Georgia was to identify "foreign agents", the basis for the inspection could be a simple written denunciation.
Since then, the standards have been tightened several times.
In April 2025, the parliament passed the so-called FARA law — it was declared an analogue of the American “Foreign Agents Registration Act” (FARA). At the same time, the American law was passed by Congress in 1938 to counter Nazi and Soviet propaganda, its focus and burden of proof were narrowed several times (it began to apply only to political lobbying), and after World War II it was a “sleeping law” — almost no criminal proceedings were opened because of it.
The impetus for its “awakening” in 2017 was the case of possible Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. In particular, in 2019, the lobbyist of the ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and the head of Donald Trump’s election campaign Paul Manafort were convicted for violating FARA (lobbying for the interests of Ukraine without registration as a foreign agent).
Unlike the US, the Georgian FARA focuses not on lobbying, but on public organizations and the media. Under it, a foreign agent in Georgia is defined as any person (legal entity or individual) who is under the control of a foreign state, acts at its direction and in its interests.
Unlike the first law on foreign agents, FARA also applies to individuals. Failure to comply with the law is punishable by imprisonment for up to five years, a fine of up to 10 000 GEL, or both.
Representatives of Georgian civil society organizations issue a statement against the parliamentʼs adoption of the FARA law, March 2025.
While Georgian authorities introduce criminal liability for foreign grants, Georgia strengthens financial ties with Russia
In May 2024, the parliament passed a law on offshore companies, which provides benefits for transferring money from offshore zones to Georgia until 2030. Critics of the law claimed that it was passed so that the pro-Russian oligarch, honorary chairman of the Georgian Dream party (and the countryʼs shadow leader) Bidzina Ivanishvili and his associates could avoid Western sanctions.
In October 2025, the first oil refinery in Georgia was launched in the port of Kulevi. On October 6, a Russian tanker delivered 105 340 tons of the “Rosneft” oil. Georgia began exporting petroleum products and sold them for about $80 million. Imports of Russian crude oil to Georgia increased by 1 600%. The European Commission was going to include the port of Kulevi in the 20th package of sanctions against Russia due to its ties to the Russian shadow fleet. But it was excluded from the sanctions list because the Georgian Foreign Minister pledged that no tanker from the shadow fleet would be allowed to enter Georgian ports anymore. The plant is going to replace Russian oil, in order to trade with the EU.
Gas supplies from Russiaʼs “Gazprom” to Georgia increased by 40.5% in 2025 and exceeded supplies from Azerbaijan for the first time since 2007.
The most famous example of how Georgia helps Russia circumvent sanctions is cars. According to the Russian “Avtostat”, in 2025, exports of used cars from Georgia to Russia increased by 218%. In December the figure was 34.6 000 cars.
On March 20, 2026, the Georgian company George Oil Ltd signed an agreement with the government of the so-called “DPR” for the supply of coal, chemicals, and metals from the occupied Donetsk region. The company’s chairman, Valerian Kochiashvili, said that deliveries could begin by the end of April, and that George Oil Ltd would partially re-export the coal to India and Turkey. Kochiashvili owns several companies, some of which have won government contracts.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau was given the right to decide who was “working at the behest of a foreign state”. For example, ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, it recognized the NGOs Transparency International Georgia and the International Society for Fair Elections & Democracy as “entities with a declared electoral purpose”. That is, those who influence the elections. Because of this decision, the country’s two largest election monitoring organizations were unable to register as observers.
But the previous restrictions turned out to be insufficient, so on March 4, 2026, the parliament adopted a package of new ones — on grants.
- The concept of "grant" has been expanded. Now it is not only money, but also any "technical assistance": the transfer of knowledge, technology, services, or expertise (even if they are paid).
- Any foreign grants can only be received with the consent of the Georgian authorities. In the new version, this applies not only to Georgian NGOs, but also to businesses, branches of foreign organizations in Georgia, and foreigners with a residence permit in the country.
- An extremely broad concept has emerged: “activities on political issues related to Georgia”. Any human rights or social activity can be interpreted as “political”.
- Those who worked for an organization that received 20% or more of its funding from abroad were banned from being members of political parties for eight years from the time of employment.
- Violation of the law is punishable by a fine of double the amount of the grant received, imprisonment for up to six years, or up to 500 hours of community service.
The law was also made retroactive: everyone who previously received grants must apply to the authorities for permission to use the remainder by April 4.
Razhden Kuprashvili has been the head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Georgia since its establishment in 2023.
3. Prohibition on electing and being elected
On the eve of the 2024 parliamentary elections, “Georgian Dream” declared that if it received ⅔ seats, it would ban the “collective national movement”. It meant pro-Western opposition parties ideologically or historically linked to Mikheil Saakashvili’s former ruling party. It failed to obtain a constitutional majority, only a simple majority.
Then, in May 2025, parliament passed a law that simplified the Constitutional Court’s ability to ban parties. The Constitutional Court can now ban any party whose goals, activities, or party lists “substantially repeat” the same parameters as another party that has already been banned.
In October 2025, parliament passed another law: if a party is banned, politicians associated with it are banned from becoming party members or holding senior government positions. This is essentially lustration.
In parallel, “Georgian” Dream formed a parliamentary investigative commission to investigate the crimes of Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) and “his satellites”. In September, the commission submitted a 470-page report that:
- calls the 2003 Rose Revolution “an externally organized coup d’état, a color revolution aimed at creating a united camp of states in confrontation with Russia”;
- places responsibility for the 2008 Russian-Georgian war on UNM and Saakashvili;
- generally condemns UNM and its policies in many areas during its rule in 2004-2012;
- after 2012, accuses UNM, its "satellites" and non-governmental organizations funded from abroad of undermining Georgiaʼs national interests.
Pro-Russian oligarch, former Prime Minister (2012–2013), honorary chairman of Georgian Dream and the countryʼs de facto shadow leader Bidzina Ivanishvili. Before the 2024 parliamentary elections, he personally promised to ban opposition parties.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
Three leaders of major opposition parties were convicted for refusing to testify before the commission. In June 2025, “Lelo Strong Georgia” party leaders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze received eight months in prison, and one of the leaders of the “Coalition for Change” Zurab Japaridze, received seven months. They were also banned from holding public office for two years.
The leadership of “Georgian Dream” promised to send this report to the Constitutional Court with a request to ban UNM and other parties. In October, Speaker Papuashvili stated that his party demanded to ban the three mentioned opposition parties: the United National Movement, the “Coalition for Change”, and “Lelo — Strong Georgia”.
"United National Movement". "Lelo — Strong Georgia." "Coalition for Change."
The new law on “Extremism against the Constitutional Order”, adopted along with a large package of regulations in early March this year, may help ban opposition parties. The law prohibits questioning the legitimacy of the Georgian government. The opposition, which calls the elections fraudulent, senior officials illegitimate, and calls for protests, may fall under its scope.
To further restrict the opposition, the parliament in December 2025 adopted amendments to the electoral code: it abolished voting from abroad in any future elections. To vote, voters must come to Georgia on election day. The Georgian diaspora abroad (totaling about 1.5 million people) has traditionally been less supportive of the “Georgian Dream”.
Thus, in the 2024 parliamentary elections, the ruling party received 4th place and 14.5% in foreign polling stations, although it won with 54% of the vote overall. The first three places abroad were won by three parties that the “Georgian Dream” wants to ban.
The queue for the parliamentary elections at the Georgian embassy in the UK. The queue at the embassy in France.
4. Attack on universities
In December 2025, the parliament passed an education reform. It changes the rules by which universities operate: the distribution of curricula and the model of financing higher education institutions (HEI).
The reform was presented as a need to redistribute students from Tbilisi. 85% of the countryʼs students receive higher education in the capital. This leads to migration from the regions and allegedly creates excessive pressure on the city. Therefore, the government proposed to "strengthen regional universities".
The state now pays for the education of all students in state HEIs (foreign grants and aid have been reduced to a minimum), but it will determine the volume of orders and programs that universities offer. This is how the idea of “one city — one faculty” arose (i.e., in a particular city, areas of education should not be duplicated between universities).
The Illya State University deserves special attention in this process. It was established in 2006 during the reforms of Mikheil Saakashvili, combining six institutes into one university — interdisciplinary, Western-style and liberal values. So it is natural that it has conflicts with the “Georgian Dream”.
For example, when Georgian students and teachers declared an academic boycott in May 2024 due to the "Russian law", the rectors of 38 universities condemned them. Illya University was not among them.
Protests at Illya University, February 2026.
The university currently offers about 120 programs in various fields. After the reform, it will be left with only 16: pedagogical programs and some STEM programs. In addition, it will be hit by restrictions on external funding: it has 38 partner universities, double degree programs, and participates in international research projects.
Next academic year, Illya University will lose 92% of its applicants: from 3 770, there will be 300. At the same time, for example, the conditionally pro-government Tbilisi State University and Georgian Technical University, on the contrary, will increase the number of applicants.
And this is not the end yet.
To describe in detail everything that is happening with freedom in Georgia, one text is not enough. Babel focused only on the main laws of the last year.
In addition to them, the Georgian authorities have banned "LGBT propaganda", removed the word "gender" from the legislation and abolished "gender quotas", restricted journalistsʼ access to parliament and banned them from filming inside the court, are planning to abolish the rule on the mandatory participation of public organizations in the adoption of legislation, and many other restrictions. The situation is getting worse every day.
This publication was produced as part of the “Seizing Synergies” project, implemented by n-ost and supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of BMZ.