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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

Terje Helland

@terjehelland

Mar 24

🇬🇪Georgia is quietly undergoing a dramatic geopolitical shift. Under Georgian Dream and its informal leader Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country is accelerating its alignment with Iran (and China and Russia)—abandoning its Western orientation.
🧵A thread on why this matters.
1/16

In 2023 and 2024, high-level diplomatic contacts between Tbilisi and Tehran reached unprecedented levels.
Georgian PM Irakli Kobakhidze made two visits to Iran in 2024 alone—an extraordinary development that signals a warming political partnership.
2/16

In January 2024, Georgia’s Foreign Minister met his Iranian counterpart at Davos, laying the groundwork for deeper ties. By July, Kobakhidze attended Iran’s presidential inauguration, solidifying Tbilisi’s readiness to embrace Tehran as a strategic partner.
3/16

Read 20 tweets

Terje Helland

@terjehelland

Mar 21

🇬🇪We know Georgian Dream is steering Georgia toward Russia. But there’s another shift unfolding—one that gets far less attention.
🧵This thread explains how GD is deepening its ties with China, aligning Georgia with a growing authoritarian bloc and turning away from the West
1/21

Georgian Dream (GD) claims it is committed to Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic path. It repeats promises of better EU and US relations. Yet the government’s policies are moving Georgia in the opposite direction—away from the democratic West, and into authoritarian partnerships.
2/21

A turning point came in July 2023, when Georgian Dream elevated its relationship with China to a strategic partnership. Though framed as an economic agreement, this decision marked a significant shift in Georgia’s foreign policy and its place in the global order.
3/21

Read 25 tweets

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