00:00Georgia has jailed four key opposition figures.
00:03It's part of a crackdown on dissent, they say,
00:05that followed a disputed election last October.
00:08Nearly all leaders of Georgia's pro-Western opposition are now behind bars.
00:13Let's bring in Regis Jant, who is our correspondent in Tbilisi.
00:17Regis, good evening to you. Tell us, what's at stake here?
00:23I think what is at stake is really to try to erase
00:27the pro-European mood that the country has since decades now,
00:33even I would say since centuries.
00:35And this is really what's going on now.
00:37And this is why even not for, but in fact,
00:41since the 22nd of May, seven prominent leaders from the opposition have been jailed.
00:47And meanwhile, there are also some very strong attacks against the NGOs,
00:53which are usually pro-Western and financed by the West.
00:56And the law was adopted last year, remember, against what they call the foreign agent law.
01:02But in fact, it's just a strike against the pro-Western mood,
01:06as the government is now obviously aligned with Russia.
01:11Indeed, the aim of Georgians is to get into the European Union.
01:14Of course, Russia trying to put pressure on in many ways to keep Georgia within its orbit.
01:21President Mikhail Kevilashvili, now the man in charge, nominally, former Manchester City footballer,
01:27just for the record, I suppose, just gives you a sense of the man's political background in many ways.
01:34I'm wondering what ordinary people that you are among there in Tbilisi,
01:39what they're thinking about this situation.
01:41Is there still that sense of people wanting to get on the streets and protest about what's going on?
01:45I think a lot of them are confused because the government tries to depict itself as a pro-Western,
01:54but not the West of the liberal countries of Brussels,
01:57but being what they call a European with dignity because they want to re-stigmatize, for example,
02:04homosexuals and depict Europe as only defending homosexuals.
02:07So this is really a very populist agenda in this regard.
02:11And some people are lost also because the government also did a lot of campaigns,
02:16for example, for the last elections in October, the parliamentary elections,
02:20on do you want war on peace, peace with us, war with our adversaries within the political spectrum of Georgia.
02:30So this is why they are confused.
02:32Part of them also, of course, they understand that the country is leaving its European past,
02:37which is dreaming about for decades, at least since the end of the Soviet Union in 91st.
02:43But they're afraid because now we are really in a repressive moment in Georgia by the law.
02:50For example, if you go to demonstrate, there's a lot of facial recognition cameras
02:55and you can get a penalty for 5,000 larries, which is something about 1,800 euros, which is huge, of course.
03:05So a lot of people are afraid.
03:07They're afraid also that they could be jailed.
03:10For example, at the moment, there are at least 60 or 65 political prisoners in Georgia.
03:17So really, the mood has changed.
03:19It was for a longer country, which was a kind of democratic model in the region.
03:24And now it became really a country going towards some kind of dictatorship.
03:29Regis, thank you very much indeed.
03:32Regis Shant is keeping watching brief for us on all the developments there in Tbilisi, Georgia, of course,
03:37that disputed election.
03:39And it now seems that most of the opposition banged up in jail.
03:43We're watching that story for all developments.
03:46Regis, thank you very much.
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