François Picard is pleased to welcome Tina Khidasheli, Jurist and former Minister of Defence of Georgia. According to Khidasheli, Georgia is suspended between its declared European future and an increasingly authoritarian present. While formally holding candidate status for European Union membership, the political reality has shifted toward systemic control, legal ambiguity, and the suppression of dissent. Legal instruments, particularly the foreign agents law, are designed not merely to regulate but to deter, creating an environment where ordinary professional or civic activity risks criminalisation.
The result is a chilling effect that extends across civil society, media, and even routine international engagement.At the strategic level, decision-making is no longer anchored in national interest as traditionally conceived, but instead calibrated against external power expectations, most notably those of Moscow.
This reorientation reflects not ideological conviction, explains Khidasheli, but political survival. Governance is driven less by values than by the imperative of maintaining power, preserving wealth, and avoiding accountability. Simultaneously, security concerns are selectively addressed. While visible signs of radicalization and foreign ideological influence emerge, institutional attention is redirected toward those who raise alarms rather than the phenomena themselves.
This inversion of priorities underscores a broader pattern: the state’s mechanisms are increasingly employed to stifle dissent rather than safeguard society. The cumulative effect is a fragmentation of social cohesion.
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