Having gained total control over present-day political life, Georgian Dream party leaders seem intent on rewriting the past so they can rule for the foreseeable future.

The Georgian Dream-controlled legislature has moved rapidly since last fall’s disputed election to remake Georgia’s political landscape. It has pushed through measures to muzzle opposition and prevent scrutiny of officials’ actions, while the government has shifted geopolitical gears to steer the country away from the European Union and back towards Russia.

At the same time, Georgian Dream’s leader, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, has made no secret of wanting to take revenge against political enemies in ways that would clear the way for his party to retain power seemingly in perpetuity. Last September, prior to the controversial election, Ivanishvili called for a ban on the so-called “collective United National Movement,” a term ruling party leaders use to smear all existing pro-European parties by linking them to the unpopular past.

Now, parliament is making Ivanishvili’s wish its command.

The rubber-stamp legislature has established an investigative commission with a mandate to investigate political activity from 2003-2012, the timeframe when UNM and its leader, Mikheil Saakashvili, held power.

Ostensibly, the commission’s mission is to investigate potential instances of abuse of power and pursue justice. But Georgian Dream’s many opponents say the commission is more a vehicle for the persecution of old enemies.

In announcing the formation of the commission, the rhetoric employed by parliamentary majority leader Mamuka Mdinaradze suggests the commission’s findings are a foregone conclusion. “The public must constantly remember the crimes committed by the authoritarian [Saakashvili] regime to prevent their repetition in the future,” he said. 

The commission has focused a lot of its work on the Saakashvili administration’s actions during the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia. Mdinaradze has publicly accused Saakashvili of starting the war, adding that UNM party officials, “despite having prior intelligence, failed to warn civilians in the Kodori and Tskhinvali regions, deliberately condemning thousands of [Georgian] citizens to death.” 

Former military commanders rejected these conclusions during parliamentary hearings, and the International Criminal Court ultimately found no grounds to charge Georgian officials over the events of August 2008. Nevertheless, Georgian Dream leaders are sticking with the narrative that the Saakashvili administration committed war crimes.

Leaders of the separatist region of South Ossetia, the epicenter of the fighting in 2008, have welcomed the commission’s work, stating “the criminals responsible for unleashing the war must be punished.” 

The commission’s mandate extends beyond the 2008 war, covering other alleged abuses of power, including supposed UNM efforts to exert pressure on businesses to surrender assets. Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, leaders of the opposition party “Lelo” and co-founders of influential TBC Bank, were called as witnesses over claims they helped seize an entrepreneur's property in collusion with UNM officials during 2008-2009. Like most opposition leaders, they refused to appear, risking criminal penalties of heavy fines and up to a year in prison.

To leverage commission's findings, Georgian Dream has already introduced a bill that would grant the Constitutional Court authority to ban any political party or association whose aim, according to the ruling party’s explanatory note, is “to overthrow or alter the constitutional order of Georgia by force, undermine the country’s independence, violate its territorial integrity, or engage in propaganda for war or violence.”

The commission, headed by Tea Tsulukiani, a former Justice and Culture Minister and current parliamentary vice-speaker known for a heavy-handed governing style and unquestioning loyalty to Ivanishvili. 

Critics view her as intent on digging up dirt on Saakashvili’s administration, stirring up public resentment over past violent incidents in Georgian prisons and tarring present-day Georgian Dream opponents across the political spectrum with these past misdeeds. Doing so would allow for a court ruling to ban opposition parties from contesting the next election. 

Mdinaradze in late March confirmed that the commission's findings are intended to provide the “strong legal foundation” for petitioning the Constitutional Court to declare the UNM and its “satellite parties” unconstitutional. 

Georgian Dream is also taking steps to prevent an opposition end-run around any bans. One provision in a bill under parliamentary consideration would allow the banning of new parties, if a court deems them “similar in membership or statutory objectives” to outlawed groups.