Against the backdrop of Georgia’s invasion by Russia, a group of civil society organisations have warned the country is sliding into State capture. Democracy Digest has the story.

Over the decades, Georgians have made great strides in moving toward a truly democratic, European nation, despite daunting challenges — not least from Russia, which invaded in a brief but vicious war in 2008 and still occupies 20 percent of Georgian territory, notes David J. Kramer, a senior fellow in the Vaclav Havel Program for Human Rights & Diplomacy at Florida International University’s Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs.

Yet now pro-Russian forces are on the rise, he writes for The Washington Post:

A group of leading civil society organizations recently issued an open letter bemoaning the “dire state of affairs” and “democratic backsliding and state capture,” as well as the “concentration of power in the hands of the ruling political party, thus dangerously undermining the balance of power and the viability of institutions.”

A recent poll conducted by the International Republican Institute shows that a majority of Georgians see Russia as Georgia’s greatest political and economic threat, while 52 percent of respondents criticize the government for its perceived soft handling of the relationship with Moscow.

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