The fire spread quickly throughout the territory. According to them, the warehouses where second-hand clothes, fruits and vegetables and various types of products were stored were burned.
The fire that broke out in the territory has been extinguished. 2/3 pic.twitter.com/l5zM2JxzWy
— Notes from Georgia/South Caucasus (Hälbig, Ralph) (@SouthCaucasus) April 30, 2025
Day: April 30, 2025
„As a result of the fire that broke out in the territory of the “Vagzlis Bazrobi”, approximately 15 thousand square meters were burned. According to the traders, the fire broke out at approximately 06:00 in the morning. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/xoAZ9vV8sq
— Notes from Georgia/South Caucasus (Hälbig, Ralph) (@SouthCaucasus) April 30, 2025
What gives Georgia’s protesters their strength
“Georgian Dream doesn’t realise that the strong sense of solidarity in this country isn’t tied to just three or four foundations — you can’t change young people; they are free citizens,” said Lasha Tughushi, head of the Liberal Academy, on TV Pirveli’s Daily News programme. He was reacting to the Georgian Dream government’s freezing of foundation accounts and the coordinated home raids on foundation leaders on 29 April.
On 28 April, the Prosecutor’s Office conducted coordinated searches of the homes of foundation leaders who had supported protesters and political prisoners. Raids were carried out at the homes of Nanuka Zhorzholiani, Mariam Badzhelidze, Guga Khelaia, and Aleko Tsikitishvili. Prosecutors entered the residences based on a court order, which cited an investigation into “sabotage” and “aiding a foreign state or organisation in hostile activity.”
Earlier, the Prosecutor’s Office froze the funds of organisations that had provided assistance to fined protesters and families of political prisoners. The accounts of the Nanuka Fund, Nika Gilauri’s fund, and the Tbilisi Human Rights House were seized.
Head of the Liberal Academy Lasha Tughushi:
“This is a process aimed at building a dictatorship in the country. That much is clear. We are seeing all the signs of what kind of political process we are dealing with.
When they build a dictatorship, of course they always look for justifications — they invent things, they fabricate coups, revolutions, actions against the state.
These days, we’re seeing all sorts of conspiracy theories emerge, including talk of a ‘deep state’ and a ‘party of global war’. It’s obvious they’re trying to find weak spots step by step, but they can’t — so they keep making mistake after mistake.
If you ask me, the real ‘sabotage’ and ‘subversive activity’ is being carried out against the democratic Georgian state — by the very force that calls itself the legitimate government of this country.”
“We are witnessing a coup unfold before our eyes, and this process has its authors. [Georgian Dream wants a coup] because they are building a new state — one that the overwhelming majority of Georgian citizens do not want. This state is a dictatorship. That’s what they’re constructing.
Right now, we are in a transitional moment. The protests taking place in the streets are directed precisely against this. The authorities are trying to destroy the protest, dismantle it, and break down the institutions and systems in Georgia that are fighting to make the country a democracy.
The fight they are waging — what we saw yesterday [during the raids] — is outright terror. But it won’t work, because you cannot change people’s spirit, you cannot change the youth. They are free citizens. They want to live in a country built by free people, not merely survive under a one-man dictatorship.
It’s a telling thing: when a dictatorship is being built, there must be only one benefactor. Widespread solidarity has no place in such a system.
The right to show solidarity must be granted by a single person. Solidarity must exist only thanks to someone. And we see exactly what they are fighting against. Dictatorships, authoritarian regimes, and hybrid systems always fear free people — especially free speech, and especially the free expression of a society’s will in the streets. That’s why they act in such irrational ways and try to justify it afterward.
It also shows that this regime forgives no one. It doesn’t care — it will make a child cry or humiliate a woman. They like to say ‘a man is a man, a woman is a woman,’ but it’s all a parody. Is it manly to barge into the bedroom of a pregnant woman during a raid?”
Ivanishvili suppresses solidarity
“People faced problems simply for showing solidarity — they were arrested, their homes searched. Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to be the sole master and boss, so that no one can turn to anyone else,” said lawyer Nika Simonishvili on the programme In the Political Space, responding to the Georgian Dream government’s freezing of independent foundation funds and coordinated raids on the homes of their leaders.
On 28 April, the Prosecutor’s Office conducted coordinated searches of the homes of foundation heads who had been helping protesters and political prisoners. Raids were carried out at the homes of Nanuka Zhorzholiani, Mariam Badzhelidze, Guga Khelaia, and Aleko Tsikitishvili. Prosecutors entered the residences on the basis of a judge’s warrant, which stated the investigation concerns “sabotage” and “aiding a foreign state or organisation in hostile activity.”
Previously, the Prosecutor’s Office had frozen the funds of organisations that supported fined protesters and families of political prisoners. The accounts of the Nanuka Fund, Nika Gilauri’s fund, and the Tbilisi Human Rights House were seized.
Nika Simonishvili:
“We need to understand the main goal of Georgian Dream. I believe their primary objective — their most urgent task — is to stop the protests on Rustaveli Avenue.
Whether it’s 400 people or four blocking Rustaveli doesn’t matter. It’s a symbol that the protest is ongoing, and that’s precisely why they [Georgian Dream] are not gaining legitimacy on the international stage. That’s why they need to stop the protest somehow. If the international community sees that we are silent and putting up with it, then why would it bother to impose sanctions or punish members of Georgian Dream?”
What they’re doing in parliament is nothing short of suppressing any dissent that questions their legitimacy — though they are careful not to go too far. When the police began banning roadblocks during demonstrations, even more people took to the streets. The authorities realised they needed to tread more carefully: if they didn’t interfere with road closures, fewer people would turn out, and this smaller crowd could then be dismissed as “insignificant.” They are deliberately cultivating public disillusionment so that fewer and fewer citizens take part in protests.
This entire protest movement is built on solidarity — it’s what keeps the struggle going. Even those charitable foundations were an expression of solidarity, and the authorities responded with home raids. What we saw in the case of Mzia Agamlobeli and many others who were oppressed or tortured was also an act of solidarity, and the government deliberately created problems for them because of it.
Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to be the sole master — so that you have no one to turn to but him. Without solidarity, and with no one to reach out to, the people are left isolated.