Georgia as a Case Study: From Democracy to Authoritarian Rule

Knaackstraße 97 (im kleinen Hof der Kulturbrauerei), 10435 Berlin

• PANDAtalks

On Georgia’s Independence Day, this event brings together experts, activists, and artists to examine Georgia’s democratic backsliding — not as a distant cautionary tale, but as a living blueprint for recognising and resisting authoritarian capture before it becomes irreversible.

Part I — Expert Panel: The Anatomy of Backsliding

Representatives and experts from Georgia and Germany — lawyers, political scientists, economists, sociologists, and civil society practitioners — will offer interconnected analyses of how Georgia’s democratic institutions have been eroded from within. The discussion draws on lived professional experience and academic research to map the legal, political, economic, and social mechanisms at work, and to ask: what are the early warning signs, and how can they be identified before democratic reversal becomes entrenched? Georgia’s trajectory is not unique — it echoes patterns visible across Europe and beyond. This session aims to build a transferable framework for early detection and resistance.

Moderator: Ana Lomia, LL.M. — Lawyer and Parliamentary Assistant, Deutscher Bundestag.

Speakers:

Anastasia Pociumban is a Research Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), where she leads the Eastern Partnership Think Tank Network within the Center for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. Her work focuses on EU enlargement, democratization, hybrid threats, and reform processes across the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood, including Georgia. She previously worked at Democracy Reporting International in Berlin covering Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, and at the European Endowment for Democracy in Brussels.

Nino Münch is Associate Dean of Graduate Programmes at the Hertie School in Berlin and Grant Holder Manager for the COST Action CoREx: Comparative Research on the Executive Triangle in Europe. She holds an MSc in Global Studies from Lund University and a BA in Sociology from Tbilisi State University, and brings a grounded perspective on Georgian society, democratic governance, and European institutional dynamics.

Laura Worsch is Project Manager of GEO4EU — Georgian Civil Society for EU Integration at the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) in Berlin, a project supported by the German Federal Foreign Office under the Eastern Partnership Programme. She holds an MA in Eastern European Studies (double degree, Freie Universität Berlin and University of Tartu, Estonia).

Tamuna Iluridze is an independent journalist and civic activist based in Berlin, with expertise in media freedom, democratic developments in Georgia, and political education. She is active in civil society initiatives focused on democracy, transparency, and international solidarity with Georgia and Eastern Europe.

Dr. Lela Grießbach is the founder of MY GEORGIA Women e.V., a Berlin-based organisation focused on female entrepreneurship, gender equality, and economic empowerment for women with migration backgrounds. She brings an economic and institutional perspective on how authoritarian governance reshapes conditions for women and civil society.

Sopiko Shaburishvili is a Georgian human rights lawyer and civil society activist with over a decade of courtroom and advocacy experience across Georgia and Europe. A co-founder of the Georgian-German Women’s Alliance, she brings direct professional insight into the legal and political mechanisms of democratic erosion — shaped by years of strategic litigation, human rights campaigning, and on-the-ground observation of Georgia’s shifting institutional landscape. She is currently completing a PhD in international criminal law at the University of Potsdam, where her research examines the role of civil society in the enforcement of international criminal justice. She is based in Berlin.

Part II — Art, Resistance, Memory

A multimedia exhibition and video programme document the protests, the faces of resistance, political prisoners, and the music that has carried the movement. Georgian and Berlin-based artists bear witness to what is at stake when a society refuses to give in.

Sophia (Sopo) Tabatadze is an artist and curator born in Tbilisi, living and working in Berlin since 2008. A graduate of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, she represented Georgia at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and has shown work internationally at institutions including Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam) and Musée des Beaux-Arts (Nantes). Since 2022 she runs Halfsister Berlin, a studio and artist-run space. She presents the Georgian women’s demonstrations archive and her New Georgian Alphabet project.

Nina Sumbadze is a Berlin-based video artist whose work for this event takes the form of a chronological collage — tracing Georgian history from independence to the current civil resistance through found and original footage, photographs, text, and sound.

Natia Zanon / Lila Veil is a Georgian singer, songwriter, and dancer based in Berlin. Her music weaves between Georgian and English, blending folk sensibility with contemporary songwriting. Her live performance on May 26 draws on the music of resistance that has accompanied Georgia’s protest movement.

This event is organised by the Georgian-German Women’s Alliance (GGWA) — a newly founded Berlin-based NGO focused on democracy strengthening, human rights, and equality — in collaboration with MY GEORGIA Women e.V. and Berlin-based Georgian civil society organisations.