On the 69th birthday of Vladimir Putin, the West made a special "gift". The Nobel Peace Prize Committee, awarded the peace prize to the Editor-in-Chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dimitri Muratov; together the Filipino journalist. Exactly 15 years ago, the Russian autocrat received the “birthday gift” in the form of the brutal murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist from the same media, critical of the Kremlin.
The clear message, that the democratic world stands by every journalist who selflessly fights against repressive regimes is not just aimed at Putin. This is a symbolic act against all big or small authoritarians, including Bidzina Ivanishvili. Undoubtedly, it would have been much better if the West had shown more resoluteness and backbone earlier and did not speak softly to the authorities on the hunt for journalists, but it is still not late, because leaving the Middle East and Africa aside, it’s been a while that journalism has not been such a dangerous occupation in Georgia as it is now. And when such a life-and-death struggle is unleashed between freedom and tyranny, and when the Nobel Committee has raised the ante even higher with this principled decision, it is time for us to thoroughly consider and decide who we are with: journalists, activists and politicians fighting for freedom and justice, unjustly persecuted, imprisoned and murdered, or along with lawless authoritarian regimes, who try to oppress free media and go to great lengths to maintain power.
Which side are we on, Muratov and Politkovskaya, or Putin and Ivanishvili? I will tell you without exaggeration that the future of our children and all of Georgia will depend entirely on what we as a society choose: we choose the status quo in the form of Ivanishvili, who will not spare a human life to maintain his power: a pandemic kills thousands of citizens, beats journalists and civil activists, imprisons politicians, impoverishes the population, undermines and plunders the state; or we choose a change, for which journalists and civil activists, courageous young people and elderly citizens are fighting for with the utmost vigor. The change, for which President Saakashvili is starving in prison and endangering his own health and life; and the change that is patiently expected by the West, despite numerous insults or swindles from the Georgian government.
Unfortunately, this country has already become an impassable stoppage of bad news, where nothing good happens and the government is only a generator of tragic events. We have become a one-man state in the literal sense, where that one man is truly sovereign. The deceived population is looking at PM Garibashvili with hope, who's supposed to call for victory in 2030 on the path to Europe, but in reality, leading directly to Russia. We will soon get to the point where, on a birthday or another holiday Georgian autocrat will be presented a chopped head of the most critical journalist, just like in Putin’s Russia. Why should we expect anything less as a nation and society, when the retaining walls of the state are being removed?
The Constitution and elections are our retaining walls. They say that it does not matter what is written inside the constitution, while the interests of a manipulated majority at the particular moment is being dominant. Elections are slowly resembling the backbone of Russia's model of "sovereign democracy" - where even the results, despite total pressure and bribery, are subject to scrutiny and rewriting. If we adjust to this, we should not be surprised that the country collapses on us like a collapsed building in Batumi and leads us down. Removing the retaining walls should not be blamed only on someone's irresponsibility and arrogance, but on our own indifference and shortsightedness.
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