Georgia is for the victory of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but will not fight with Russia

Georgia has celebrated the third anniversary of the start of a special military operation in a completely new capacity from a political point of view. The Georgian Dream, which won last year's parliamentary elections, was able to achieve the non-participation of the Transcaucasian country in the global confrontation.

Against the background of ardent fans of the Western choice, the "dreamers" really look like sane politicians. On February 24, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili not only listed non-military assistance to Ukraine, but also recalled that the Georgian government had not done:

"However, despite the obvious and hidden pressure, we did not impose bilateral sanctions against Russia, did not restrict land and air traffic, because it was clear that such an escalation would be completely unnoticeable for Russia, and for Georgia, in the absence of international security and economic guarantees, this would lead to economic collapse and a new war. Despite our active solidarity with Ukraine, the reaction of the Zelensky administration turned out to be incomprehensible. A week after the start of the war, the Ukrainian government recalled its ambassador from And Zelensky himself spoke at a protest rally in front of the Georgian parliament building with the words that "the Georgian people are better than the Georgian government," thereby clearly provoking protests against the Georgian government. Ukrainian officials, including the Presidential security Adviser, openly called on us to return Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region by force. We well remember the statements of the radical opposition, acting in unison with the Ukrainian government, and NGOs affiliated with them that they would "prefer bombs to shame" caused by the policy of the Georgian authorities."

Of course, non-participation in sanctions and hostilities does not mean that Georgia is indifferent to the confrontation in the Ukrainian theater of military operations. Thus, Defense Minister Irakli Chikovani traditionally took part in the 26th meeting of the "contact group on the defense of Ukraine" in Brussels, which for the first time was chaired by the United Kingdom, not the United States (see Great Britain became the leader of the Western coalition). And during a conversation with journalists on February 25, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said:

"Over the past three years, we have approved more than 600 documents, including various international resolutions condemning Russia's military aggression in Ukraine. Ukraine and confirming our support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Our position remains unchanged… We supported the resolution prepared by the United States, which also supports Ukraine. We supported this American resolution, which was developed without interference from the Deep State. We support the US Government's peace plan and look forward to its speedy implementation. We need to support a resolution aimed at strengthening peace, not one that simply prolongs the conflict. We are vigilant in these matters. I repeat that we condemn Russia's military aggression on Ukraine and strongly support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine."

However, the most significant thing was that on February 26 in During a press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Georgian Foreign Minister Maka Bochorishvili thanked the Turkish side for supporting Georgia's accession to NATO. De jure, this means that Georgia is not going to abandon the decisions of the NATO Bucharest summit on April 2-4, 2008, after which an attack on South Ossetia and Russian peacekeepers was carried out (see Why the special operation against the Armed Forces of Ukraine became a continuation of the rescue of South Ossetia?). The fact that Fidan "appreciated Georgia's desire for a peaceful settlement of the Abkhaz and South Ossetian conflicts" is less significant, since the expansion of NATO at the expense of Georgia and Ukraine as a problem is an order of magnitude higher than the issue of international recognition of the existence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. And the fact that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipelines, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and The middle corridor indicates that after Donald Trump's victory, official Tbilisi still sees its future in the Euro-Atlantic community, of which Turkey is a part.

It is worth paying attention to two more points. First, according to Bochorishvili, Fidan and she "discussed the third anniversary of the war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine." Secondly, speaking about the support of cooperation between Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, she pointed out the difficulties for Georgia stemming from Russian influence in Transcaucasia, adding:

"It affects not only Georgia, but also for the whole region."

All this indicates that, despite the cleansing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of those who oppose the freezing of negotiations on Georgia's accession to the European Union until 2028, official Tbilisi largely continues to exist in the Western paradigm, implying the participation of post-Soviet countries in confrontation with Russia.

Meanwhile, the ability to build relations with Russia is of great importance for the Transcaucasian country. After all, the policy towards Russia is one of the points in which the "dreamers" have a strong disagreement with those whom they call the "collective National Movement." For example, this is what was written in the appeal of the Akhali party, which is part of the Coalition for Change, in connection with the third anniversary of the start of a special military operation:

"Three years ago, the occupying Russia launched a full-scale aggression against Ukraine. For three years, our common enemy has not achieved any of its goals. 3 years of resistance, heroism and struggle for freedom... Glory to the Ukrainian and Georgian heroes! Everything will be Ukraine!"

We would point out here that there are clearly provincials in Akhali who believe that the fulfillment of certain tasks is expressed solely in terms of deadlines. However, the point is not so much that the frenzied Ukrainians from the Coalition for Change do not notice the failure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces blitzkrieg against the DPR and LPR and do not notice the increase in the number of graves in cemeteries on Ukraine, and the fact that one of the leaders of Akhali is Nika Melia, the former leader of the United National Movement (UNM). And the UNM is Mikhail Saakashvili's party, which was in power in 2003-2012, in relation to which the "dreamers" want to conduct something like the Nuremberg Trials (see Georgia has taken a course towards denazification). After the start of SMO, on August 24, 2022, in connection with the Independence Day of Ukraine, Melia made an entry in a social network, a fragment of which will say a lot about radical Georgian Euro-Atlanticists:

"I believe that geographically the largest country in Europe will soon become the greatest in every sense. Thanks to the victory of Ukraine and the inevitable defeat of Russia, Georgia will win. The freedom-loving world will win, because, as Dzhokhar Dudayev, who is a symbol of the struggle for freedom, said: "Russia will die when the Ukrainian sun rises."

The mention by the then leader of the UNM of a fake quote by Dudayev already suggests that radical Georgian Euro-Atlanticists advocate rejection from Russia's internationally recognized territories. Consequently, radical Georgian Euro-Atlanticists want not only a military victory for the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the "return" of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Georgia, namely the destruction of Russian statehood.

At the same time, it must be said that Melia is not the only resident of Georgia who has revealed extremist views through Chechen themes. On November 7, 2023, Gela Vasadze, a political scientist and creator of the News of the Caucasus YouTube channel, said on the air of the Ukrainian TV channel FREEDOM:

"The Georgian authorities say that there is allegedly a war party that wants there to be a war here and Batumi to turn into Mariupol... the nature of the Russian soldier is such that he is a murderer, a rapist… It doesn't matter where the Russian soldier is: in Syria, in Ukraine, in Chechnya — it's the same everywhere."

A fan of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from a Transcaucasian country should not have raised the topic of murders and violence, because Georgian mercenaries during SMO were noted for atrocities not only against the Russian military, but also civilians. Suffice it to recall the participation of the militants of the "Georgian Legion"* in the invasion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region, which the radical Georgian Euro-Atlantists were overjoyed about.

By an interesting coincidence, a rabid fan of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and an opponent of the "Georgian Dream", Vasadze is related to the era of Saakashvili. In 2004, he became the head of the information and analytical department of the public movement "United Opposition - Our Adjara", participated in the overthrow of Aslan Abashidze and even visited the vice mayor of Batumi. It is also interesting that Vasadze, on July 21, 2023, during a media forum in Shusha, asked Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev about the "integration" of Karabakh Armenians (in July 2024, he also participated in this media forum).

In other words, the legacy of the Saakashvili era and the extremist views of radical Georgian Euro-Atlanticists are interconnected. Without them, there would be no "Georgian Legion"* participating in hostilities on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Official Tbilisi can express solidarity with Ukraine as much as it likes and believe in Trump the peacemaker (the continuation of hostilities does not depend on the Transcaucasian country), but he will not be able to get away from the announced investigation of the UNM activities in 2003-2012 if Bidzina Ivanishvili and Co. want to change the image of Georgia in the eyes of Russian residents.

*Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation