What it feels like to be beaten, detained in Tbilisi’s anti-Russia protests
Behind the scenes with a protester charged with ‘verbally abusing the police’ and ‘not obeying police orders.’ Georgia’s presidential election is today, but the anti-Russian opposition is boycotting.
Editor’s note: Democracy matters. Resistance to Russia needs to be highlighted and supported.
That’s why we’re bringing you coverage from Tbilisi, Georgia today, to highlight yet another place that pro-Russian forces are on the march – and highlighting the courageous people who are fighting back.
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Rustaveli Avenue – Tbilisi's main avenue – has been buzzing with people every night for the past 2 weeks. Brandishing European Union, Ukrainian and Georgian flags, several thousand people have been gathering in Tbilisi in front of Parliament for 15 days.
Dressed in Cherkeska – a wool coat with a high collar, part of traditional men's clothing in the Caucasus – and equipped with whistles, lasers and loudspeakers, they all demand an end to the pro-Russian ‘Georgian Dream’ government, new free and fair elections, and the release of arrested prisoners.
This popular movement intensified in response to the ruling party's decision to suspend talks on joining the European Union, following what the opposition views as illegitimate parliamentary elections in October.
Georgia – with 20% of its territory occupied by Russia – is a frontline between democracy and Russian authoritarianism.
The movement that is happening right now in Tbilisi echoes the 2014 Maidan uprising in Ukraine, with ordinary citizens risking everything to demand freedom and integration with Europe. What happens here could shape the region's geopolitical future, influencing whether countries like Georgia gravitate toward the European Union or fall back into Russia’s orbit.
Police are using tear gas and water cannons on a massive scale to disperse the daily rallies, arresting more than 400 demonstrators, according to official figures since the movement began.
Among them was Giorgi Bregvadze, a student and part-time English teacher who was beaten up by the police and thrown into Georgian jails for 48 hours.
Sitting in a café near the parliament, close to where his nightmare happened, Bregvadze recounts his experience.
"I try to be an active citizen all the time," he said. “I feel like I also have a responsibility to be active, to do my thing."
Bregvadze had just finished work at 10 p.m. and joined the protest when the police arrived, wearing a bright yellow, red and navy blue jacket.
"I was literally just standing, and suddenly, four cops came to me," he recalled. "I was an easy target, I guess, because everybody was wearing black, and I was wearing a colourful [yellow, red and navy] jacket."
The scene immediately descended into police brutality, he said, despite his peaceful demonstration.
"One grabbed me by my throat, they spread my legs wide open, one grabbed my right leg, one grabbed my left leg," Bregvadze says. "They pushed me against the building that is right in front of the parliament, they pushed me there, came to me and started beating me up." he painfully recalled.
The beatings left him with several contusions on the face and bruises on the body.
“I was lucky, they didn’t break any bones,” he said.
"Three cops were beating me up at the same time, and they were verbally abusing me too, saying stuff that would annoy me, or make me feel offended," he remembers.
The situation was made even more terrifying by Bregvadze's recent septoplasty surgery, which made it difficult for him to breathe.
"[A] fist was coming at my chin, and I also had this big thing, they bruised my lip” and they took me to the police station," he said. “I was clearly shocked.”
At the police station, Bregvadze was held for an hour and a half: “it was a really Kafkaesque situation,” referring to the bureaucracy at the station.
People suddenly became courteous, faces were emotionless – the scene “formed an [unbelievable] atmosphere compared to what had happened to me 20 minutes before,” he recalls.
Then, he was transported to Sagarejo prison, 50 kilometers east from Tbilisi, where he spent 48 hours in isolation with no contact with the outside world.
"I was so nervous because my mom and my dad watched me being arrested and humiliated on live stream," he said. "I did not have the opportunity to contact them, and the police told me they would contact them. They did not know that I was arrested until 8 hours later." he recalls. The isolation and uncertainty added to his anxiety.
So too did the conditions of his detention. Just one piece of bread to eat all day, and a solitary bottle of water. Giorgi’s cellmate was in an even worse state, desperately needing stitches for a head wound inflicted by the police. It’s unknown what happened to him.
Giorgi’s experience highlights the increasingly brutal treatment of protesters by authorities, who seem determined to crush dissent at any cost.
“No matter whether they arrest us, we do not consider ourselves as victims, we consider ourselves as freedom warriors,” he insisted. “The people want to live in a democracy.”
In response, the Georgian Dream is stepping up repression against the movement and Georgian society. Multiple cases of police violence against demonstrators and journalists have been documented by NGOs and the opposition, a repression denounced by the United States and Europeans, who have threatened to take retaliatory measures against the Georgian government.
The pro-Russian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidzé described the demonstrators as “violent groups” controlled by a “liberal fascist” opposition, a term often used by the Kremlin to target its political opponents.
During The Counteroffensive’s interview with Giorgi, the court called him.
"I will be [before a judge] in 2 hours," he said nervously. He calls his mom – as always, she is stressed. “She thinks the government is hunting me specifically,” he grinned.
After the appearance, he said that he was accused of “verbally abusing the police,” a charge which was dropped. The second charge is for not obeying policemen, and the trial will be held later. He doesn't know when.
Meanwhile, police also raided the offices of the Youth Organisation of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party. At the youth headquarters, the rooms were left ransacked, and many working documents were confiscated.
“The police arrived. There were about a hundred of them. They searched everything, forced [open] doors, pierced ceilings. They confiscated a lot of things like computers and even clothes. It was violent because when the activists were there, they tried to stop them,” explained a member of the UNM. “The five activists present during the search were arrested on the spot and taken to a detention center in the west of the country.
A video also shows the police officers, one of them going in the opposite direction, with what the UNM describes as false evidence. Activists think that the police planted microphones in the headquarters during the 6 hours of the raid.
The regime has increasingly resorted to employing Titushky, mercenary agents reminiscent of those who supported Ukrainian security services during the Maidan revolution.
“Generations were born in free Georgia. What's happening now in Georgia is that people simply don't want to live in Russia,” said a young activist in front of the Parliament late at night on wednesday 11th, when the cold freezes your face.
The strikes have galvanised a wave of community activism and grassroots efforts, with citizens taking matters into their own hands. Ordinary protesters are creating Facebook groups to organize their demonstrations; logistics are supported by crowdfunding. During the protests, a notable spirit of solidarity has emerged, with food being distributed freely to the protesters.
And as violence appears to escalate, protesters have begun putting together self-defense groups.
"It's a battle of nerves at this point," a high-ranking source in the UNM admitted. "It's a matter of who can hold out the longest – us or them.
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NEWS OF THE DAY:
PRO-RUSSIAN PRESIDENT ELECTED IN GEORGIA: Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former footballer with no university degree and the candidate nominated by the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party, has won the presidential election in Georgia.
He was the sole candidate.
This year, for the first time, the president was not elected by popular vote but by a special electoral college, where the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party holds the majority of seats.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has declared that she does not recognize the election's legitimacy and has announced she will not leave the presidential residence when her term expires.
NEW RESTRICTIONS ON GEORGIA PROTESTERS: The Georgian government, led by the Georgian Dream party, has introduced a ban on wearing masks or other face-covering devices, as well as the use of pyrotechnics and laser pointers. The law was passed in just three days. Georgians can now face fines exceeding $700 for violating these regulations. Additionally, the government has imposed stricter controls on the import, export, and sale of pyrotechnic products within the country.
The President of Georgia and the opposition have declared that they do not recognize the legitimacy of this new law.
RUSSIA IS EVACUATING MILITARY FROM SYRIA: Satellite imagery has revealed active withdrawal of Russian troops. Significant amounts of ground equipment, the arrival of large transport planes, and the dismantling of attack helicopters and air defense systems have been observed at Khmeimim Airbase, the main base for the Russian contingent in Syria, according to the Financial Times.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian military intelligence has reported that hundreds of Russian troops are unable to evacuate from the Syrian province of Homs due to fears that their convoy might be attacked.
In the chaos and confusion, armed groups operating in Syria are also apparently exploiting the situation in the opposite direction, using Russian flags on their convoys as cover to move freely.
N.KOREANS BEING PREPARED FOR KURSK ASSAULT: North Korean soldiers may soon participate in fighting against Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region, according to Ukrainian military intelligence. Reports indicate that they were placed on alert on December 13. Additionally, some North Korean troops are allegedly being covertly transported to the front line in civilian trucks disguised as water carriers.
RUSSIA MAY BE SPYING ON THE U.S. MILITARY THROUGH TINDER: Russian intelligence operatives are reportedly targeting Americans in military and defense-related roles, using dating sites to establish connections and lure them to Russia.
On the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow alerted Washington, noting that "the number of Russian women requesting K-1 fiancée visas to marry American men with security clearances was statistically improbable," the Washington Post wrote.
It allegedly involves Moscow’s elite DKRO security force, tasked with monitoring, intimidating, and arresting foreigners and Russians suspected of collaborating with them. DKRO consists of only about 2,000 officers
DOG OF WAR:
Today's dog of war is one of the three puppies that Mariana met in a tea house. But only one of them allowed her to take a picture:)
Stay safe out there.
Best,
Mariana
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I wish more Americans were taking note of these events and the bravery of Georgian citizens like Giorgi. The longer we wait to protest what’s happening here, the harder it will be to protect our civil liberties and democratic way of life.
Thank you so much for this informative post on the situation in Georgia, Counteroffensive team - Russia has been permitted to infiltrate so many countries since the collapse of the USSR, and sadly the West in particular assumed that Russia had turned over a new leaf. Putin, of course, represents all that is evil in that country, but the EU, US and the UK welcomed this demon-spawn and his ilk into the West with open arms. Now we are seeing the results...