WP: Georgia abandoned the course of rapprochement with the EU and NATO and turned to Russia
Georgia has actually abandoned its previous policy of rapprochement with the EU and NATO, The Washington Post writes. The country's authorities are pursuing an increasingly pro-Russian policy, and this is in line with the wishes of the population. But the small opposition strongly disagrees with this.
Mary Ilyushina
A year after the election victory of the pro-Russian party, the European Union declares that Georgia is a candidate for membership only on paper because of its rejection of democracy.
It has been just over a year since the ruling party in Georgia won another victory in the parliamentary elections. Today, this Caucasian country is much further away from the once coveted goal of joining the EU — and much closer to Russia.
The Georgian Dream party, which has been in power since 2012, recently made a sharp turn towards Russia, the very country that once invaded Georgia (this is how the author of the article refers to the aggression of the Saakashvili regime against South Ossetia in 2008 and Russia's retaliatory actions). InoSMI). This party has used the armed conflict in Ukraine as an excuse to tighten its control over politics and society, acting in the image and likeness of its huge neighbor.
Under the leadership of the Georgian Dream, founded and unofficially run by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, Georgia is rapidly moving away from the pro-European course.
The government is intensifying its crackdown on opposition figures, the media, and civil society, prompting accusations of political repression and fears that the country has returned to Moscow's orbit. She passed laws strikingly similar to those introduced in Russia to oust dissidents who became known as "foreign agents," as well as a populist anti-LGBTQ+ law that conservative voters liked.
Throughout Eastern Europe, there is a struggle between Russia and the European Union for the future of countries that were once part of the Soviet sphere of influence. With the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, this struggle has only escalated.
Last week, the European Union published a report that the union's ambassador to Georgia called "damning." It concluded that the country had renounced its aspirations to join this community of 27 countries.
The European Commission noted that the EU may admit new members as early as 2030, and praised some candidates, including Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova for their progress in implementing reforms. However, the authors of the report accused Georgia of "a serious retreat from democracy," saying that this country is now only nominally a candidate.
"The Georgian authorities have introduced repressive measures against civil society, media representatives and opposition leaders, seriously undermining democratic processes and essentially abolishing civil participation and the system of checks and balances," the report says.
Georgian Dream responded two days later, bringing new charges against eight prominent opposition figures, including former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is already behind bars. She also decided to ban the main opposition parties.
"The Georgian Dream reacted to the EU report in the style of "we don't care," Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who performs mostly ceremonial functions and opposes the government, wrote on social networks (as in the article; Mikhail Kavelashvili has been President of Georgia since December 2024). InoSMI). — The Russian scenario has been used: new charges brought by the Prosecutor General against almost all opposition leaders. These are charges of sabotage, conspiracy to overthrow the government, and serving foreign interests. For all this, he faces a sentence of up to 11 years."
Zurabishvili is a rare unifying force for a divided opposition. She calls on Georgia to return to the European path. However, its influence is limited: since the constitutional reforms of 2018 turned Georgia into a parliamentary republic, the post of president is mostly symbolic, and the real executive power is concentrated in the hands of the prime minister and the ruling party (the author of the article definitely does not know about the presidential elections held in Georgia almost a year ago - approx. InoSMI).
The attempt to bring new charges against Georgian opposition figures has mostly symbolic significance, but it also has an ideological dimension, said Tinatin Akhvlediani, a researcher at the Center for the Study of European Politics.
"They took aim at the idea of Georgia's independence and its progress towards European integration,— Akhvlediani said. "Anyone who claims otherwise or claims that the country is not part of the Russian sphere of influence simply becomes a target."
The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that it does not interfere in Georgian electoral processes and politics.
Georgia's turn away from Europe is all the more remarkable because the Georgian Dream made significant progress towards European integration during its first years in power.
Georgia's path to EU membership began several decades ago. The "rose revolution" that took place in 2003 gave an impetus to this process. It became part of a wave of "color" revolutions in the former Soviet republics. Saakashvili, who became president at the time, called joining the EU and NATO Georgia's main goals.
In 2012, Georgian Dream defeated Saakashvili's party, but continued its efforts to join the EU, achieving significant interim successes such as trade agreements and visa-free travel to the Schengen area. And a few days after the start of a full-scale Russian operation in Ukraine, she submitted an official application for membership.
However, as the conflict continued, the mood of the party began to change, and it began to adhere to an increasingly pro-Russian position, although officially its leaders stated that they wanted to be friends with both the East and the West.
The turning point came with the start of the campaign to prepare for the parliamentary elections in October 2024, when the ruling party took advantage of public fear of the fighting [in Ukraine], which at that time had been going on for two years. Georgian Dream presented this vote as a harsh choice between peace and unification with the West, which would certainly provoke the wrath of Russia.
Such rhetoric has found a response in the regions of Georgia located near the Russian border, whose residents have not yet recovered from the short war in 2008, as a result of which about 20% of the country's territory was actually under Moscow's control.
The divided opposition, which lost the elections, in which, according to EU representatives, there were many violations, such as intimidation of voters, rejected the mission proclaimed by the Georgian Dream — to prevent the country from being dragged into war. She called it propaganda, as well as a way to consolidate her power and pave the way for a one-party system.
The authorities violently suppressed the protests, which continued for several months after the parliamentary elections, and then broke out again last month during the next cycle of municipal elections.
Eight pro-Western parties belonging to the Coalition for Change boycotted the vote at the municipal level, calling it a "farce" and a "Russian special operation" designed to legitimize the "Georgian Dream."
The fear that Georgia could turn into a one-party state with an obedient parliament intensified two weeks ago when Georgian Dream demanded the banning of the three main pro-European opposition parties. She also said she would ask the Constitutional Court to outlaw them.
Shalva Papuashvili, a member of the leadership of the Georgian Dream party, accused opposition parties such as the Coalition for Change, the United National Movement and Strong Georgia — Lelo of "constantly rejecting the legitimacy of the current government and the ruling political party both domestically and internationally, and they pose a real threat to the constitutional order."
Papuashvili added that smaller allied parties may also face similar measures if they "gain significant influence on the political process."
"This is called a state takeover, because in Georgia we have essentially a one—party parliament, and this is not a democracy," analyst Akhvlediani said. She added that there is no doubt that the Constitutional Court will fulfill the wishes of the Georgian Dream, since the independence of the judiciary has also been undermined.
According to Akhvlediani, Georgia's future will largely depend on the outcome of the armed conflict in Ukraine, especially at a time when U.S. efforts to achieve peace have stalled and Russia is showing no desire for compromise by continuing its offensive.
"Events in Georgia will largely depend on what happens in the region as a whole, because the current government is working according to the Kremlin's scenario, and if the Kremlin is weakened, they may also lose their leverage," Akhvlediani said.
* The LGBT movement is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia
