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Terje Helland

@terjehelland

May 5

🇬🇪SANCTION BILL: The U.S. Congress has just passed a historic bill that strikes at the heart of Georgian Dream’s regime.
It labels GD as pro-Kremlin, mandates sanctions, freezes aid, and declares the government unfit to lead a Western-aligned Georgia.
🧵This changes everything.
1/8

For the first time, Georgian Dream is officially designated by a major Western power as a pro-Russian force working against Georgia’s democratic and Euro-Atlantic future.
Their façade of “pro-European stability” has collapsed — in full view of the world.
2/8

The law mandates Global Magnitsky-style sanctions within 60 days.
Targets will include Ivanishvili’s inner circle, top officials behind repression, and those rigging elections or abusing civil society.
This cuts deep into the foundations of GD’s power.
3/8

Read 8 tweets

Terje Helland

@terjehelland

May 3

🇬🇪As the U.S. ramps up sanctions against Iran, Georgia’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, is quietly strengthening ties with Iran, Russia, and China, potentially positioning Georgia as a backdoor conduit for sanctioned regimes.
An Iran–Georgia sanctions evasion thread ...
1/9

Since 2023, trade between Georgia and Iran has surged significantly. Georgian imports from Iran jumped from $167 million in 2022 to approximately $285 million by 2024, including petrochemicals, metals, and construction materials—all crucial sectors targeted by U.S. sanctions.
2/9

Alarmingly, Georgia’s imports of Iranian natural gas surged by 600% in 2023. Though still modest in volume, this trend demonstrates a clear willingness by Tbilisi to test Western sanctions boundaries, potentially emboldening further energy-related cooperation.
3/9

Read 13 tweets

Terje Helland

@terjehelland

Apr 21

🇬🇪 April 9, 1989: Soviet paratroopers crushed a peaceful pro-independence rally in Tbilisi.
21 Georgians were killed.
The commander on the ground?
Alexander Lebed, a rising Soviet general.
Years later, he would be funded by Bidzina Ivanishvili—Georgia’s future PM.
A thread 🧵

April 9 became sacred in Georgia—etched in the national soul as the day the fight for freedom turned deadly.
But in 2025, Georgian Dream’s leader, Kobakhidze, said this:
“36 years later, still a foreign force is engaged in violence on Rustaveli Avenue.”
He meant the protesters.

The self-proclaimed PM equated the protesters of today with the murderers of 1989.
A reversal so grotesque it reveals what Georgian Dream has become:
A party that speaks in anti-Russian code while functioning as Russia’s Trojan horse.
In the center of this is Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Read 23 tweets

Terje Helland

@terjehelland

Apr 14

🇬🇪Exit polls confirmed Georgia’s opposition—Coalition for Change, UNM, Strong Georgia, and For Georgia—won decisively in the Oct '24 elections
Yet overnight, the Central Election Commission declared Georgian Dream (GD) victorious with 53%. Observers denounce this as blatant fraud

Western democracies rightly refuse to recognize GD’s illegitimate government. The extreme GD don't care. They are doubling down—introducing a law to BAN these opposition parties, labeling them anti-Georgian, anti-constitutional, anti-national, and criminal
globalnews.ge/en/georgia/123…

This is GD’s latest move: empowering the Constitutional Court—controlled by GD appointees—to swiftly outlaw political parties based on vague accusations.
These steps will cement an authoritarian and emerging dictatorial regime.

Read 5 tweets

Terje Helland

@terjehelland

Apr 8

🇬🇪 The self-proclaimed speaker of the one-party parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili’s presence at the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Uzbekistan is not diplomacy — it’s whitewashing.
He represents a regime that stole an election and rules through coercion, not consent.
1/6

The Oct. 2024 election was widely condemned for intimidation, media bias, vote manipulation, and systemic abuse of state power.
All major observer groups — both international and domestic — were aligned in their findings.
2/6

@osce_odihr, @IRIglobal, @coe, the EU, the U.S., and Georgian watchdogs all documented the same patterns:
→ voter intimidation
→ misuse of state resources
→ a skewed media environment
→ no effective legal remedy
→ tracking and recording of voters
3/6

Read 7 tweets

Terje Helland

@terjehelland

Apr 5

🇬🇪GEORGIA WARNING: What’s happening is no longer a temporary backslide. It’s a coordinated campaign to dismantle democracy, capture institutions, and reorient Georgia’s geopolitical future.
🧵And Europeans politely ask them to “return to the European path" ...
1/22

Georgian Dream (GD) has been repeatedly told — by the EU itself — that laws adopted already in 2024 are fundamentally incompatible with EU membership. These laws must be repealed to even begin serious accession talks. GD knows this.
2/22

Instead of reversing course, GD is doubling down — introducing new, even worse laws that only add to the legal and institutional barriers between Georgia and EU integration.
Georgian Dreams present talk of “rebooting relations with Europe” is pure demagoguery. It’s a lie.
3/22

Read 25 tweets

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