[Sounds of chanting and can hitting a pavement during protests] HOST (VICTOR SWEZEY) Oh shit! [Coughing] Agghhhhhhhh. I gulp for air, throat tightening, eyes burning. A stampede of panicking protesters push me down the avenue. There’s tear gas everywhere. Okay, yeah I start running, as fast as I can, completely blinded, bumping my shins hard against wrought-iron benches and concrete planters. Oh it fucking hurts. I’m not even sure which way I’m running, just that I’m moving the same direction as the crowd. Hey. NINA Hey. HOST Hi. NINA You’re alive! HOST Yeah, I got fucking tear-gassed. How are you? NINA Yeah, me too. [unintelligible] Do you need..? HOST I’m OK, but yeah maybe a little bit. NINA Open your eyes wide. HOST I’m Victor Swezey, this is “The Land in Between,” episode 4: Uprising. Twelve hours before I got tear-gassed, I thought it was all over. The new parliament had convened — the protests alleging election fraud had failed. But people’s anger hadn’t gone anywhere. It was just trapped, beneath a thin crust of exhaustion and despair — what Georgians like to call “nihilism”. But then a room full of politicians in Belgium take a vote. EU PARLIAMENT FROM NEWS CLIP And then another joint motion for a resolution tabled by five groups on Georgia’s worsening democratic crisis following the recent parliamentary elections and alleged electoral fraud. We go to amendment one… HOST And Georgia reaches a point of no return. EU PARLIAMENT FROM NEWS CLIP The vote is closed. It is rejected HOST The European Parliament votes overwhelmingly to reject the results of the election. Unless Georgia holds a do-over, it can forget about joining the EU. You know sometimes, when you’re about to break up with someone, and they jump in and break up with you first. That’s how the Georgian government reacts. [Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze press conference in background] Georgia’s Prime Minister calls a press conference. He says the country will enter the EU not as a beggar, but with dignity. Therefore, he says, Georgia will be suspending its bid to join the EU until 2028. The dream of a united Europe. Let me take you back two decades. [New Year’s Eve celebration music] It’s New Year’s Eve 2002, and this is the sound heard across the continent. NEWSREADER This week’s January 1 transition to euro bills and coins amounts to the biggest currency transaction in history. HOST Twelve countries had just made an incredible gamble. They’d given up control of their own economies to be part of something bigger. After two world wars and a Cold War that had divided Europe for half a century, this is what the euro represented. Peace, prosperity, integration. ZURAB ZHVANIA SPEAKING IN GEORGIAN, THEN ENGLISH I am Georgian, and therefore I am European. HOST For decades, the close to 80% of Georgians who want to join the EU have held onto their own version of this dream — that the big blue flag with the circle of yellow stars would redeem their legendary past full of fearless warriors and Christian saints — and guarantee a prosperous, democratic future, safe from Russian aggression. But in the blink of an eye, it’s all over. The outrage takes a few hours to spread, as Georgians call their friends and family and post on social media. Then people begin to move, completely independently, motivated by rage and a profound feeling of betrayal. I call a cab to Georgian Dream’s party office, where a crowd is gathering. Oh, I hear them. Yeah, it’s pretty loud… Okay… A ring of police stand shoulder to shoulder around the building. There’s no stage or sound system, no long-winded speeches or blaring pop music. Instead, I hear one word chanted over and over again. [Chanting Revolutsia] Revolutsia. MEGGIE DIASIMIDZE Every people, they are talking about revolution, revolution. HOST This is Meggie Diasimidze, an activist I’ve seen at nearly every protest since the election. MEGGIE I'm so angry, because this is betrayal for me, for Georgian people. HOST And then she says something that really catches my attention. MEGGIE We need to remember Ukrainian Maidan. HOST Euromaidan. Ukraine. 2013. This was the mass uprising that began after the country’s President, Viktor Yanukovych, rejected a deal with the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia. NEWSREADER 1 European Union leaders and Ukraine have as expected failed to sign an historic free trade deal after a last-minute U-turn from Kyiv. NEWSREADER 2 Russian President Vladimir Putin has slashed the cost of gas sold to Ukraine and agreed to buy billions of government bonds. HOST The protest was initially led by students, who occupied Kyiv’s central Maidan square. NEWSREADER 3 Thousands of people are continuing to rally in Ukraine's capital Kyiv for the 14th night… HOST But increasing police repression brought more and more people to the streets, eventually in the hundreds of thousands. NEWSREADER 4 Bitter cold has not deterred protesters in the Ukrainian capital, where they are barricaded with sandbags and automobile tires. [Speaking in Ukrainian] HOST After a few weeks, chaos reigned in Kyiv, with police firing live rounds at protesters wielding Molotov cocktails. NEWSREADER 6 Fallen bodies on the streets of Kyiv, protesters confronting security services who respond with live ammunition. HOST It took three months — and 108 protesters lost their lives. But they won. NEWSREADER 7 President Yanukovych, along with his security forces, has vanished. The only functioning institution is parliament, where the opposition now find themselves… HOST The protest had begun spontaneously, with a Facebook post. But as the uprising grew, the US got more and more involved, politicking behind the scenes to ensure its chosen leaders came out of the revolution on top. And with the situation on the ground tilting toward the West, Russia decided to make a move. NEWSREADER 8 As many as 20,000 Russian soldiers have been on the move across Crimea in the past 24 hours, and they've taken over without firing a shot. NEWSREADER 9 Ukrainian and pro-Russian forces are heading for a showdown in Donetsk, where the armed rebels have called on the local population to evacuate the city… HOST But the Georgians on the street don’t see Maidan as a cautionary tale. For them, it’s an inspiration. Before I know it, the crowd is leaving, but they’re not going home. They’re en route to Rustaveli Avenue, to parliament. [Slamming sounds] People are pouring in in a way I’ve never seen before. Bulky, industrial-grade gas masks hang around necks and peek out of backpacks. My N95 with the respirator feels puny by comparison. [Pounding and cheering in background, whistles and cheering] Protesters are pounding on the 15-foot barricade again. And this time it doesn’t feel futile. This time, it feels furious. [Sounds of whistles] The opposition leaders are nowhere to be found. But the police are here in force, packed wall to wall on the two side streets that flank the building. The protesters shine green laser pointers into the cops’ eyes, and set off fireworks over their heads. They’re screaming into the faces of the police, a couple words that will become very familiar. [Protestors chanting: “Rusebo! Rusebo!”] Rusebo, monebo. Russians, slaves. And they have some choice words for Bidzina Ivanishvili, the oligarch who leads the ruling party. [Protestors yelling: “Bidzinas ra? Dedis tsquna!”] HOST [Translating from Georgian to English] What to Bidzina? Fuck his mother. HOST The police line falls back, then pushes forward, both sides drifting up and down the street like a wave. Suddenly, things get quiet, and a white cloud drifts down from the side street and into the crowd. [Chanting Rusebo continues] Alright, the cops are shooting tear gas, All right, I put my mask on. I have goggles in hand, some tear gas just floated over. PROTESTOR 1 Your first time? HOST Yeah. [Oh, shit] Protesters flee down the side street escaping the gas. [Coughing] They’re coughing violently, their eyes beet red. But they’ve come prepared. All around me, people are pulling eyedroppers and plastic jugs out of their pockets and backpacks. They’re squirting saline solution into each other’s eyes to counteract the effects of the gas. Alright, so the police are coming down. They're pushing the protesters. Looks like they've gone to the bottom of the hill, and now the protesters are throwing bottles back. The police have cleared both side streets, and linked up with reinforcements waiting a block down. Now they’ve set up a sort of battle line: In front is a row of officers in riot gear with shields. Georgians call them “robocops”. But I hear the ones you really need to watch out for are Georgia’s state security services — the “susi.” They’re more agile than the robocops, sort of spiderlike, dashing out from behind police lines to grab unsuspecting demonstrators and throw them into unmarked vans. In the back is the artillery: trucks equipped with water cannons, strobe lights, and a booming speaker system, drowned out by the crowds. [Announcement on speaker system] HOST [TRANSLATING ANNOUNCEMENT FROM GEORGIAN] The voice on the speaker repeats two sentences. “Citizens, please disperse. Otherwise, legal measures will be taken against you to restore law and order and to establish civil peace.” HOST But the protesters aren’t dispersing. They’re building barricades. [Sounds of metal being pulled across the ground] They throw everything in: garbage cans, park benches, tables and chairs from restaurants, ATMs — even electric scooters. [Sounds of fire crackling] And then they set bonfires in the middle of the street. Fireworks explode overhead. [Sound of fireworks] Young people wearing gas masks climb on top of the piles of urban debris, waving Georgian and European flags. [Sounds of fireworks and cheering] PROTESTOR 2 They should probably know if, like, they punch us, we will punch them twice back. PROTESTOR 3 Right now I’m here, and I'm doing everything in my power to, like, sabotage and get everyone's attention, fucking break windows. I was up there on the second floor. I don't fucking know how. My fucking hands are, like, chopped by glasses, because of what I did, but I don't even know why I did that. I just want to make like a really disturbance for the police. HOST What did you do? You broke the windows of parliament? PROTESTOR 3 Uh, yeah I actually did. Who doesn’t? Who didn’t do it? PROTESTOR 4 Georgia is my homeland, and I will defend it with my people. I am proud of my people. PROTESTOR 5 Russia always been our enemy, the biggest enemy in the world. And I hope one day we will live in a democratic and freedom country. HOST What would your message be for Bidzina Ivanishvili? PROTESTOR 2 Fuck off man. Just suck your own dick. Suck whoever’s dick you want. Suck Putin’s dick, but just fuck off Bidzo. PROTESTOR 3 Fucking die. Burn in hell, motherfucker, I hope you die. HOST The long block, between the opera house and the art museum is typically the heart of Tbilisi’s tourist district. Tonight, it’s a battlefield. I watch as young men in black balaclavas move everything that can be moved into the barricades and bonfires. And then, at around 4 a.m., after ingesting a lot more tear gas than I bargained for, I decide to call it a night. I think it’s time to go home. I think it’s… I think it’s time to go home. And I quickly become very grateful to have left when I did. Because of what happens next. [Sounds of gunshots and rubber bullets] Just before 5 a.m., I watch on social media as the susi sweeps through again, pumping shotguns loaded with rubber bullets. They dart out in little groups, grabbing whoever they can. [Woman screaming] They chase people into pharmacies and subway stations, tackling them, beating them, and then loading them into unmarked vans. That first night, 43 people are arrested. By the morning, it’s clear that the movement has spread far beyond Tbilisi. In Batumi — Georgia’s discount Las Vegas on the Black Sea — tens of thousands throng the historic beachfront boulevard. [Sound of singing national anthem in Batumi in news clip] [News clip of arrest in Kutaisi] As crowds gather in the ancient city of Kutaisi, the police violently arrest a group of university students. But perhaps the most striking protests are the ones in places you wouldn’t expect them, gatherings of 20 or 50 or 200 people in communities where everyone knows each other, where Georgian Dream’s political machine dominates the school system and police department and pension distribution — where a dissenting Facebook post can get you dismissed from your job or socially ostracized. These have been the fruits of the party’s 12 years in power, of Bidzina’s quest for complete state capture. And now, they don’t seem so secure. [News clip of Gori protest in Georgian language] In Joseph Stalin’s hometown of Gori, a crowd gathers in the middle of the day, just a few blocks from the towering Soviet museum dedicated to the dictator. [News clip of Poti protest in Georgian language] In the industrial town of Poti on the Black Sea Coast, protesters attempt to block Georgia’s largest port. And in the first 24 hours, a wave of institutions — the most progressive and politically active in the country — shut down in solidarity with the protests. Some of the biggest universities cancel classes. Actors, musicians, and artists declare a strike. Tbilisi’s famed clubs shut their doors indefinitely, encouraging ravers to spend their nights on the streets instead. [Techno music] Thousands of people follow a pickup truck with a speaker around the city blasting Georgian techno and carrying a banner that reads, “We resist repressions.” [Slamming sounds] I go out every night, sometimes until dawn. I notice a sort of rhythm emerging from the chaos. The protesters will face down the riot police, the police will charge, the barricades will go up, and finally the susi will clear the road with their rubber bullets. And I wonder which side will break. In the first few days, hundreds more people are arrested. Photos begin to circulate on social media of black eyes, bleeding faces, and broken noses. At the same time, there’s a wave of defections from the ruling party. High-profile ambassadors and susi officials resign. Many of Georgia’s largest companies rebuke the government’s decision. And out on Rustaveli Avenue, I bear witness to some fantastic and terrifying things. [Fireworks] Protesters bring out a life-sized effigy of Bidzina Ivanishvili, scarecrow-like, and burn it on the front steps of parliament. Flames engulf the head, shoulders, and ribcage. The arms fall off one after another, and then it disintegrates into a pile of ashes. At one point, I’m leaving one of my favorite cafes — a bar by night, with a garden and arbor of twinkling Christmas lights — where I’ve gone for some warm mint tea and fiery chacha shots with a few friends. [Police siren] We emerge onto the dark street to see a squadron of susi — the special forces — jogging towards us. We run down a set of stairs and hide in an open courtyard. If the police catch me, they won’t care that I’m wearing a press badge. An older man wearing an undershirt comes out onto his porch and tells us don’t worry, we can stay as long as we need to. [Explosions in background] Alright, this is… this is night six of the protest. I’m at the front with Sandro… Ahead of me is a friend, a medical student. He’s here to help, carrying a first aid kit and a bottle of saline solution. I’m holding my microphone, with my headphones around my neck. I finally have a proper gas mask and some pink, rubber swimming goggles, which, it turns out, are the most effective way to shield your eyes against tear gas — if you cover them with petroleum jelly to prevent them from clouding. The whole block is choked with a thick layer of tear gas. I walk straight into the cloud, completely protected, feeling like an astronaut on some strange planet, where toxic smoke hangs in the air, and taking off my spacesuit means suffocation. SANDRO Then start walking that way. Not in a harsh… Like don’t start running, just walk that way… HOST Sandro signals to me with his hand above his head. Move forward, slow down, stop, fall back the cops are coming. SANDRO Here, we are untouchable. They’re not gonna be able to arrest us here, even if they start arresting, it’s going to be the people who are in the front… HOST Around me, the protesters are learning. They leave jugs of water by the curb, then rush forward when the gas canisters fall, pick them up, and drop them in, neutralizing them. I drift back and forth, through the smoky half-light, colorful fireworks blooming overhead. [Fireworks] In that moment, it feels like the protests could go on forever, every night, just like this. But at some point, the music has to stop. On the final episode, when the barricades come down and the bonfires go out, what’s left? GIORGI VASHADZE I'm expecting to be arrested, not because of crime that I committed, because I love my country. IRMA DIMITRADZE It didn't even take a year for Georgian Dream to implement everything that Russia did. HELENA BEDWELL Nobody cares about Georgia anymore. Who is going to come and save you? They are not responsible to anyone? The boss is Bidzina. HOST “The Land in Between” was produced, reported, and written by me, Victor Swezey. It’s a production of the Global Reporting Centre. Our editors were Andrea Crossan and Britney Dennison. Music by Irakli Margishvili. Translator and production assistant: Sandro Gudiashvili. Fact-checking by Sharon Nadeem. Digital support by Andrew Munroe. Credit song is Mdevari, by Skazz. Art by Mariam Katcharava. Special thanks to the Soviet Past Research Laboratory and the Fulbright Program for making this project possible.