This is the opinion of the former ambassador of Georgia to the USA and associate of several respectable think tanks, Batu Kutelija, who last week participated in the conference organized by the Baltic Defense College in Tartu.
He was invited to the conversation by Latvian Radio journalist Uldis Ķezberis.
Batu Kutelia on the situation in Georgia
Uldis Ķezberis: Why does the current Georgian government not want to express strong support for Ukraine and condemn Russian aggression?
Batu Kutelija: Let’s start with the fact that the current Georgian government has questionable legitimacy, having been in power thanks to a series of rigged elections. And this government is led by an informal leader – Russian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili. And the government is fully accountable to this informal leader who is financing this, shall we say, Russian-style state capture.
Therefore, we can say that they are Russia’s allies, and the only way they can stay in power is to indulge Russia. Therefore, it is natural and obvious that they are allies of Russia.
The difficult thing about the story of the state capture in Georgia is that 80 percent of Georgians support Ukraine, and this is confirmed by public opinion polls.
They are ready to help Ukraine and want the government to support Ukraine more actively. More than 100,000 citizens participated in several demonstrations in support of Ukraine in Georgia.
The government, on the other hand, is doing the opposite. And this is the biggest problem of Georgia. On the one hand, the population supports Ukraine, the ideas of freedom and the need to defeat the aggressor – Russia, because Georgia was the first victim of Russia’s aggressive revisionism, but on the other hand, Russia managed to implement a state capture in Georgia with the help of an illegitimate government and oligarch networks.
Does this indicate Georgia’s return to the orbit of Russian influence and moving away from the path of Euro-Atlantic integration?
Once again, Georgians are not the ones to turn away. They still support this path. And this is a unique problem, because neither we nor our Western partners have faced such a large-scale state capture when the majority of the population is pro-Western and supports joining NATO and the European Union, but the country is run by an illegitimate government that maintains its power thanks to kleptocratic connections with the Russian financial, political and criminal system.
But, yes, Georgia is a country moving away from integration into Western society. The latest example of this was the government’s proposed “foreign agents” bill, which completely copied a law passed in Russia. It once again made it clear that the current government of Georgia is carrying out a state capture, following the Kremlin’s handbook.
Unfortunately, there are no more resources within Georgia to help turn the country in a different direction. Georgia’s only chance to return to a pro-Western integration trajectory is to put strong external pressure on those in power, for example by imposing sanctions on Ivanishvili and other informal leaders.
in Georgia pbuilding a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine have arrived tens of thousandsu citizens of Russia. Do these people pose a risk to Georgia’s security or stability?
First, we must view this wave of immigration from Russia through the prism of national security risks. The fact that the current government of Georgia has not implemented any more thorough checks at the border, starting with the collection of biometric data and the verification of other relevant information, naturally increases the risk that the country could be infiltrated by Russian special services.
Various activities also pose risks. For example, the social network “TikTok” just published its report, which identified a significant number of profiles managed by Georgia, whose task is to express support for Russia in the war against Ukraine. These digital nomads are in most cases somehow connected to Russian intelligence.
We have also observed the flow of Russian money into Georgia, for example through real estate or through exports and imports. Georgia has seen an increase in the amount of imported electronics, which are then re-exported to Russia. All these actions are carried out by Russian citizens who came to Georgia, enjoy fairly liberal residency rules and do what they have to do because they are loyal to the Putin system.
About 20 percent of Georgia’s territory is still occupied by Russia, which supports and maintains the separatists of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. What are the chances of restoring Georgia’s full territorial sovereignty?
Yes, twenty percent of Georgia’s territory is occupied by Russia. Unfortunately, after this occupation, the other eighty percent has also been “softly” occupied by Russia, implementing this oligarchic state capture.
This is #Georgia🇬🇪 within its internat’ly recognized borders. 20 perc. of its territory (in colours) is currently occupied by #Russia🇷🇺. After 🇷🇺 aggression ag 🇬🇪 in Aug 2008, 🇷🇺 failed to withdraw its forces from 🇬🇪 & is erecting illegal borders there.
Credits for pic – GFSIS pic.twitter.com/R8ztQ0OlAO
— LT_OSCE (@LT_OSCE) April 20, 2020
Georgia’s integration into the European Union and NATO is the easiest way for us to peacefully restore our territorial indivisibility.
Therefore, Russia is trying to threaten Georgia’s integration into NATO and the European Union by informational and political means. The fact that they proposed the “foreign agents” law clearly shows how they want to hinder Georgia’s historic opportunity to gain EU candidate status and speed up our integration into NATO, as with Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression, the Black Sea becomes an important part of Europe’s security architecture. and this opens the possibility for Georgia to become a member of NATO.
Recently, a lot of attention has been paid to the health condition of the former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili. Why does the Georgian government not allow him to go abroad for treatment? Is this the revenge of Saakashvili’s opponents on him?
Let’s start with the fact that Saakashvili is a political prisoner. There is another political prisoner in Georgia – Nika Gvaramija. He ran the largest opposition television channel. It is characteristic of authoritarian regimes to demonstratively punish their political opponents and to create such an atmosphere that others have no chance to resist, otherwise they will suffer a similar fate.
In Saakashvili’s case, it is a pragmatic personal revenge, but it also has a symbolic meaning. If you look at the message of Russian propaganda, which largely coincides with the propaganda of the Georgian government, you will notice that they are trying to present the imprisonment of Saakashvili as a punishment of the Georgian people for a pro-American former leader of the country, but the Americans cannot save him.
Unfortunately, we also hear similar rhetoric from Georgian government officials who, as I said, serve the interests of oligarch Ivanishvili and Russia.
Keeping Saakashvili in prison and not releasing him on humanitarian grounds clearly demonstrates Putin’s personal vendetta by his trusted oligarch Ivanishvili.
CONTEXT:
In Georgia, the bill on “foreign agents” proposed by the government caused widespread protests. It provides for the inclusion in the list of “foreign agents” of non-governmental organizations and media that receive at least 20% of their funding from foreign countries. A fine of 25,000 GEL or 8,800 euros can be imposed for refusing to register in the “foreign agents” register.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, whose Georgian Dream party supported the bill, argued that the Georgian public should know which organizations receive foreign funding. He called the opponents of the bill spies.
The bill has drawn comparisons to Russia’s 2012 “foreign agents” law, which the Kremlin has used to suppress the opposition and shut down independent media.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili opposed the draft law, who announced in a special address that the protesters represent free Georgia.
Western countries warned the Georgian government that the adoption of the bill would be a serious obstacle on Georgia’s path to joining the European Union.
After several days of widespread protests, “Georgia Dream” announced on March 9 that it was withdrawing the bill.
