Our window to Georgia: Between Moscow's course and repression

For around two years, people in Georgia have been taking to the streets for democracy, freedom and a European future. But the repression continues: opposition members and activists are in prison, and more people are being arrested. At the same time, the Georgian government is increasingly moving closer to Moscow. What does this development mean for people in Georgia and abroad? And what hope remains for political change?

Podcast host Tigran Petrosyan talks about this with Gaga Gogoladze, Giorgi Kakabadze and Tedo Rakviashvili. The three are involved in the GZA, the Georgian Center Abroad in Berlin.

The activists organize protests, try to mobilize the Georgian diaspora and seek exchanges with German politicians. At the same time, there is growing concern that Georgia is increasingly disappearing from international reporting.

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For Gaga Gogoladze, European integration is more than a political decision: “For Georgia, the path to Europe is also a path home,” he says. But under the current government he sees little chance of realizing this perspective.

He is particularly concerned with an often overlooked consequence of authoritarian rule: families are torn apart. Many people would have to leave their homes without knowing when they would be able to see their relatives again. “This is one of the least reported results of dictatorships, so to speak, that families break up,” says Gogoladze.

Even in Berlin, activists don't always feel safe. Giorgi Kakabadze reports on provocations and suspected intimidation attempts at peaceful demonstrations in Berlin. Suspicious people appeared several times. A man suggested that their involvement could become dangerous in the future. Kakabadze suspects a possible connection with Georgian security services.

How much can protests from abroad actually achieve? And how can Georgia's struggle for democracy be prevented from being forgotten? That's what this podcast episode is about.

Eastern Europe is one of the focal points of the taz panter foundation, which looks to places where access to information is becoming increasingly difficult - Russia and Belarus are among them. On the last day of the month, a new podcast episode of “Our window to, among other things, Russia/Belarus” appears in the taz panterstiftung’s “Free Speech” podcast format.