She saw the red flags, trained the people now dismantling democracy--and stayed silent too long.
The timeline is breathtaking.
December 2023: EU grants Georgia candidate status.
May 2024: Government passes Russian-style “foreign agent” law.
October 2024: Elections marked by widespread fraud.
November 2024: Government suspends EU talks.
January 2025: First female journalist political prisoner.
https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/06/08/i-was-not-fierce-enough-georgian-activists-brutal-confession-as-democracy-collapses/
She saw the red flags, trained the people now dismantling democracy—and stayed silent too long.
BY
ALYA SHANDRA
08/06/2025
“We fucked up.” It’s not often you hear a democracy activist open with those words, but Nino Robakidze, a veteran democracy activist with over 15 years fighting for Georgian freedom, isn’t interested in pretty narratives.
Speaking at the “FuckUp Night” panel at the Lviv Media Forum 2025, Robakidze laid bare how Georgian civil society enabled the fastest documented democratic collapse in modern European history.
The timeline is breathtaking: December 2023, Georgia receives EU candidate status. Eighteen months later, dozens of political prisoners, including four high-profile politicians, fill Georgian jails, independent media faces criminal prosecution, and the government has abandoned European integration entirely. Over 200 public servants were fired simply for posting pro-European statements on Facebook.
“Georgian civil society is in a perfect storm,” she says. “We saw the red flags. We really saw the red flags. But it was so uncomfortable to really talk about that.”
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