Terje Helland Profile picture
Sep 1, 2025 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.
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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.

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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
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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

Feb 10
🇬🇪Georgia has entered a new phase of political repression. A mass “Opposition Silencing Trial” is now underway in Tbilisi, targeting leading opposition figures in a single, collective prosecution that Georgian Dream brands as a “sabotage case.”
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The so-called evidence reportedly consists of public speeches, protest activity and media appearances. In other words, lawful political activity reframed as a criminal conspiracy. Potential sentences reach 15 years.
2/10Image
Those on trial are Mikheil Saakashvili, Giorgi Vashadze, Nika Gvaramia, Nika Melia, Zurab Japaridze, Elene Khoshtaria, Mamuka Khazaradze, and Badri Japaridze. Different parties.
Different political roles.
One courtroom. One message: opposition itself is the crime.
3/10 Image
Read 10 tweets
Feb 1
🇬🇪Georgia is sliding into a legal dictatorship. Not overnight. Step by step. Each protest is met with a new tailored law.
Each law designed to exhaust, criminalize, and isolate society until resistance itself becomes illegal.
Here is how the latest law changes everything.
1/11 Image
Step one: the so-called “Russian law.” Sold as transparency. In reality, a stigma law targeting civil society and media. Georgians protested in massive numbers. The government learned protest alone would not stop it.
2/11Image
Step two: halting EU accession talks. A strategic break with Europe, framed as “sovereignty.”
Georgians protested again. The message from society was clear: Europe is the choice, not isolation.
3/11Image
Read 12 tweets
Jan 28
🇬🇪Georgian Dream is Europe’s most un-democratic and human rights-violating force currently in power.
Today, they announced new amendments to the "Law on Grants" that criminalize receiving foreign support, restrict political participation, and outlaw core democratic activity
1/12Image
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Georgian Dream is doing this for one simple reason: it works. Every previous authoritarian law has been met only with Western “concern,” “worry,” and polite “urges to reconsider.”
No consequences. No costs.
GD feel absolute power and they use it to crush all opposition.
2/12 Image
They can do it because EU and US politicians are not reacting. Silence has become permission. Each non-response signals that the next anti democratic escalation will also be met with no reactions.
3/12
civil.ge/archives/719193
Read 12 tweets
Jan 23
🇬🇪Georgia and Georgian Dream is emerging as a key enabler of Russia’s sanctioned shadow fleet.
New reporting by Finland’s YLE reveals how Georgia-registered companies are keeping Russian oil tankers operational despite EU sanctions.
1/11Image
At the center is Arnika Trade LLC, a company registered in Tbilisi, identified as a key intermediary supplying spare parts for Finnish Wärtsilä engines used on Russian tankers under sanctions.
2/11Image
These are not old contracts or accidental spillovers.
The reporting documents systematic deliveries from 2023–2025, routed via third countries specifically to evade EU and Western export controls.
3/11
Read 12 tweets
Jan 19
🇬🇪🇮🇷Georgia is strategically very important to the Iranian regime.
Not marginal. Not incidental.
Under Georgian Dream, Georgia has become a country Iran actively relies on to move money, goods, and political influence.
1/11Image
That importance did not emerge by accident. It grew as Georgian Dream steadily lowered political, diplomatic, and economic barriers between Tbilisi and Tehran, even as Iran faced deeper international isolation.
2/11 Image
In 2024 alone, Georgia’s prime minister @PM_Kobakhidze made two official visits to Iran. These were not routine diplomatic exchanges. They occurred at moments when most Western-aligned governments were deliberately keeping distance.
3/11 Image
Read 12 tweets
Jan 15
🇬🇪Georgia is no longer a democracy.
This is not “backsliding” or “under strain”.
It is an authoritarian system where power is, right now, being engineered to never change hands.
Calling it anything else is denial.
1/11
📷Maurizio Orlando / Hans LucasImage
Georgian Dream didn’t stumble into this.
They built it.
🔹Law by law
🔹Fine by fine
🔹Ban by ban
Repression that looks legal still counts as repression.
2/11
terjehelland1.substack.com/p/georgia-has-…Image
This includes the systematic party takeover of the state itself.
🔹Courts
🔹Prosecutors
🔹Regulators
🔹Electoral bodies
🔹Oversight institutions
Once captured, these bodies stop restraining power and start enforcing it.
3/11
Read 11 tweets

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