By Lucy Papachristou
TBILISI (Reuters) -Just over a year ago, a diverse array of opposition coalitions jockeyed for votes in Georgia’s parliament, with four of them winning seats. Today, of their eight main leaders, all but one are in jail, in exile or facing criminal charges. The ruling party aims to ban the three main opposition groups outright.
The slide into one-party rule has shocked many in the tiny South Caucasus country of 3.7 million. In the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia appeared a burgeoning democracy, on the fast track to joining the EU and escaping Russia’s orbit.
But now it is further from the West than at almost any time in its post-Soviet history, according to an assessment from Brussels, which described its democratic institutions as hobbled and its courts under the thumb of the state.
This month, the EU declared in a report that Georgia was now a candidate for membership
Five Minutes From Autocracy: How Georgia U-Turned From Its Western Path
