Terje Helland Profile picture
Sep 1 7 tweets 3 min read Read on X
🇺🇸🇬🇪 Oklahomans! In 2020, @SenMullin warned that Georgia’s ruling party was tied to Russia, Iran, and hostile actors.

Today, as a US Senator, he is blocking the bipartisan #MEGOBARIAct- thus protecting the very regime he once called a threat.

What happened?

1/7Image
The #MEGOBARIAct is simple: it holds Georgia’s ruling “Georgian Dream” accountable for democratic backsliding and Russian-style laws and human rights violations.

It passed the House.
It has the backing of 98 Senators.
Only two remain reluctant. Mullin is one of them.
2/7 Image
Blocking MEGOBARI doesn’t just hurt Georgians fighting for democracy.

It helps Moscow, Tehran, and Beijing.
It undermines NATO, US security interests, and our allies in the Black Sea.
This is not “just another bill.” It’s strategic.

3/7 Image
Here’s the kicker: in 2020, Mullin himself signed a letter warning about Georgian Dream.

He said they pushed out American businesses.
He said they were tied to Iran sanctions-busting.
He said they endangered US national security.
4/7 Image
Image
So why the reversal?

Why was Georgian Dream “anti-American” in 2020 but now suddenly worthy of protection in 2025?

Who benefits when Sen. Mullin buries a bipartisan bill to hold them accountable?

Oklahoma deserves answers.

5/7 Image
This isn’t partisan.
Democrats and Republicans alike- 98 senators- stand behind MEGOBARI.
The only outliers are a handful shielding a pro-Russian regime. Mullin’s obstruction puts him out of step with America’s values and Oklahoma’s interests.
@SFRCdems @SenateForeign

6/7Photo: Georgia Today
📞 If you live in Oklahoma: call Sen. Mullin’s office at (202) 224-4721.
Be polite, firm, and clear: Support the bipartisan #MEGOBARIAct.
🇺🇸 If you live elsewhere: share this, tag Oklahoma friends, and ask why your senator stands with 98 others—while Mullin blocks democracy.

7/7

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More from @terjehelland

Aug 28
🇬🇪Georgia’s paradox: a government despised by its people, yet firmly in power.
Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream survives not through popularity, but by fusing repression, economic dependency, and rigged institutions.
🧵In this thread I try to explain this paradox.

1/16Image
Polls are clear: Georgians distrust the government, dislike Ivanishvili, and want a European future🇪🇺.
And yet, since 2012, Georgian Dream has ruled without interruption.
Why?
Because the state has been rewired into a machine of loyalty and fear.

2/16 Image
It looks less like a democracy and more like a neo-feudal pyramid.
Ivanishvili sits at the top. Beneath him: ministers, governors, mayors, civil servants - their jobs secured not by merit, but by obedience.

3/16
Read 16 tweets
Aug 26
🇬🇪Georgia is suffocating under Putin’s Trojan Horse @GeorgianDream41.

Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream has turned a pro-European nation into a captured state.

The West is still looking away. It’s time to act - and sanctions are the key.
1/16Image
Ask Georgians: Ivanishvili is despised.

His “foreign agents” law, copied from Moscow, is rejected by the majority. His anti-Western rants fall flat.

So why does Georgian Dream still control the country?
2/16
Because the regime has been hardwired into the state itself.

Courts follow political orders. Laws are weaponized. Elections are tilted. Opposition is criminalized. Protesters are beaten.

This is not governance. It’s Russia’s Trojan Horse strategy in action.
3/16
Read 16 tweets
Aug 21
🇬🇪Why is Georgian Dream surviving despite mass protests, backlash, and international condemnation?

The answer isn’t repression alone. It’s money.

🧵A thread on how Bidzina Ivanishvili’s fortune and Russian inflows saved his regime - and why it’s still may crack.
1/15 Image
This thread draws on an excellent analysis by Jaba Devdariani @JDevdariani & Tornike Zurabashvili @TornikeZ :
“How Money Saved Ivanishvili’s Regime”.

Highly recommended reading ⬇️
2/15
politicsgeo.com/article/168Image
In Georgia, politics has always been about democracy and economics.

Ivanishvili reshaped the system: not just a political boss balancing elites, but a Russia created billionaire oligarch with his own stake in the economy.
3/15 Image
Read 16 tweets
Aug 9
🇬🇪Georgia is undergoing a political transformation - but not towards the future we all want.
The extremist ruling party, Georgian Dream, has evolved into a demagogic, anti-Western machine, deploying propaganda and laws that echo the darkest chapters of the 20th century.
1/17 Image
This is not an exaggeration. Georgian Dream’s tactics combine authoritarian governance, Russia-aligned revisionism, and Goebbels-style propaganda.
There has been a near-total one party state takeover and the systematic dismantling of democracy.
2/17
politicsgeo.com/article/167Image
Since 2022, the party has passed at least 25 major laws that curtail freedoms:
🔹Foreign agent law criminalising independent NGOs and media
🔹Constitutional tools to ban opposition parties outright
🔹Blanket protest restrictions and expanded police powers
oc-media.org/explainer-the-…
Read 17 tweets
Jun 10
🇬🇪A country once seen as the democratic bright spot of the post-Soviet space is now undergoing the fastest authoritarian regression in modern European history.
🧵Here’s a thread to keep you updated on what’s happening - and why it matters.
1/23 Image
🇪🇺Just 18 months ago, Georgia was granted EU candidate status.
Today:
🔹 Rigged elections
🔹 Political prisoners
🔹 Criminalized dissent
🔹 Legislation 100% incompatible with EU membership
🔹 Suspended EU integration
The speed of collapse is staggering - and intentional.
2/23
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Georgian Dream @GeorgianDream41 has steadily severed ties with the West - while mimicking Putin’s playbook at home.
What began as hostile rhetoric is now a barrage of repressive laws targeting opposition, civil society, and journalists.
3/23
Read 25 tweets
May 26
🇧🇬🇺🇦In March 2025, a voice on the phone said: “We will bring you to your knees, swine.” Weeks later, his family was chased on a Bulgarian highway.
🧵This isn’t fiction. It’s the true story of Svet DiNahum - a writer punished for exposing Russian lies.

1/24 Image
For seven years, Svet DiNahum @sdnahum
has endured state-linked persecution in Bulgaria. His “offenses”?
🔹Writing a novel critical of Russia’s annexation of Crimea
🔹Supporting Ukraine
🔹Publishing peer-reviewed research on Russian disinformation

2/24
It started with his novel Escape from Crimea - a fictional account of Russia’s 2014 invasion. The book sparked fury from pro-Kremlin circles.

What followed was a systematic campaign to isolate and silence him.

3/24 Image
Read 26 tweets

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