As I sat down a few nights ago near midnight to begin this article, social media was already ablaze with a new wave of terror videos — gangs of state-backed thugs beating people senseless in the streets of Tbilisi. Framing by the Quincy Institute is distorting that picture beyond recognition. One video, posted less than an hour earlier, showed six masked men on an empty side street. The victim is local TV cameraman Giorgi Shetsiruli. Shortly after, another video surfaced: this time a mob of at least 20 similarly masked assailants was filmed storming the opposition office of the Coalition for Change.
They confront two bystanders at the top of the stairs, a few pushing past to surround them. Suddenly, one of the bystanders is punched in the face and shoved down the staircase. This is year-old Koba Khabazi , a member of the Coalition for Change.
As he lay at the bottom of the stairs, the circle of assailants beat him. His companion receives the same treatment shortly after. For nearly two weeks, each morning, those of us who have gone to bed at all wake up to the next round of such videos. Scenes of violence have flooded television screens and social media feeds daily, alongside reports of illegal house raids, arrests of opposition figures, journalists targeted, water cannons and excessive teargas unleashed on protesters, gangs chasing people through the streets, student activists abducted into unmarked vans by unmarked men….
This follows a similar flood of news broadcasts and videos just over one month ago, showing clear election fraud taking place in broad daylight. President Salome Zurabishvili, the lone holdout, will see the end of her term next week, though she has stated she will remain in office until elections are re-run. The Georgian dream, meanwhile, has pre-selected Mikheil Kavelashvili — a devout anti-Western loyalist and former footballer with no higher education — to take over the office which, for the first time, will not be decided through direct elections but by an electoral college controlled by the ruling party.
Several misprints have occurred in international media, confusing things on the international stage. Meanwhile, several publications, including The New York Times, have mischaracterized the crisis as a clash between the opposition and the ruling party, overlooking its spontaneous nature, and grassroots origins.
