‘The EU should take a tougher stance on Georgia’

In Georgia, political repression is steadily intensifying. EU membership is slipping further out of reach, and the Georgian Dream government is cozying up to Russia, albeit not always openly. Civil society organisations are frequently singled out as a target.

Eka Gigauri is the director of Transparency International Georgia. Her car has been defaced with graffiti, and when she walks through Tbilisi, she sees her own image on propaganda posters branding her a traitor. In recent years, she has been personally attacked by the Georgian government, and now she even faces the threat of imprisonment. For Transparency International, it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue its anti-corruption work in Georgia.

I spoke with Eka Gigauri in The Hague, where she stayed for several days following a visit to Washington. The interview was published in Dutch by RAAM.