Divided Georgia: A Hostage to Polarization | Carnegie Endowment |

Georgia's domestic political discourse has been angry and divisive since the late 1980s, when competitive politics was allowed for the first time as the Soviet Union began to unravel.

Politics and society remained largely polarized throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. For the past decade, politics has been dominated by a bitter confrontation between the two main political parties, Georgian Dream and the United National Movement (UNM), and their respective founders and de facto leaders, Bidzina Ivanishvili and Mikheil Saakashvili.

Politicians from these two parties, with highly partisan television channels as their platforms, regularly use hate speech and abusive language toward one another. Accusations of "treasonous" actions, public slurs about politicians' private lives, and efforts to humiliate the other side have become commonplace and contribute to the country's democratic backsliding.

Saakashvili drama turns to courtroom | EurAsiaNet - Oct. 13, 2021 |

A political murder, illegitimate pardon and order to beat-up opposition leader ...

America worries about harm to its envoy of forward democracy ...

Press statement Ned Price: Treatment of Former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili

Georgia's future as a democracy, and therefore its potential membership in the EU and NATO, is at stake | CEPA - Oct. 19, 2021 |

'Sapere aude'