Nika Gvaramia, founder of the Coalition for Change, has said that Georgian Dream’s reaction to the European Union’s offer of renewed communication reflects what he described as a Russian approach to compromise, predicting that the authorities will accelerate efforts to ban opposition parties, resume the sabotage case, and arrest politicians.

In a social media post, Gvaramia said the process of banning political parties was being pushed forward at an accelerated pace.

“The European Union said it does not engage with countries in such a state or with authoritarian regimes and gave Georgian Dream a probation period until January: if you put things right, communication will be restored.

Separately, I personally consider this a mistake, and I have told my European friends so. But the fact is that, as in all previous cases, Georgian Dream’s reaction is typical of what we generally see from Russians: they do not understand the concept of being given a chance or making compromises, and they regard such gestures as weakness.

The same thing has happened now, as in every other case: the very thing they should not have done - banning political parties - is being pushed through at an accelerated pace.

They will also resume the sabotage case and arrest politicians. Moreover, if we follow the logic of the situation, a verdict in the sabotage case could come first, because they need to portray politicians and parties as ‘violent’ in advance to justify banning them.

I will not pretend to predict which will happen first. I am simply making an assumption, but I have no doubt that they will do both, along with everything else, so that by January the country will be even further away from its cherished historic goal - the European Union,” Gvaramia stated.