Georgia, a new Ukraine? Two separatist enclaves and Russia wanting to impose gag laws

The situation has so many similarities that it is impossible to believe that it is not the same strategy and the same objective. As in Ukrainethe republic of Georgia To two separatist enclaves on its territory fueled by Russian money and weapons. The vast majority of its population is likely to be part of the European Union and Moscow is doing everything possible to ensure that this does not happen. The government in Tbilisi is divided and a pro-Russian faction is pushing draconian laws to destroy the opposition and contain any discontent as it does Vladimir Poutine.

Last week, as parliament discussed a “gag law” in which any organization with international relations that derives more than 20% of its income from outside the country is considered as “foreign agent” there were massive demonstrations which were harshly suppressed. It is an almost exact copy of the law which has been in force in Russia since 2012 and another in allied Belarus, from the same period, and which even allows the government remove the nationality of people with international relations.

According to, Giorgi Gogiadirector of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watchthe law “attempts to create a special status and legal regime for organizations and media that receive foreign funding and -under the guise of transparency- undermines the freedom of association and the media and their legitimate functions”.

The objective of the majority party in the government coalition, Georgian dreamis to prevent opposition parties, human rights organizations and independent media from being forced to cut all ties with Europe. It seeks to isolate the country and bring it ever closer to Russia’s interests. Even other members of the coalition oppose the law. Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, has already promised to veto it, and in a video message posted on Facebook gave its support to the demonstrators. “Those who support this law today, all those who voted in favor of this law today, are violating the Constitution. They’re keeping us all away from EuropeZurabishvili said in the video on Tuesday. “I said on day one that I would veto this law, and I will.”

After two days of unprecedented protests in Tbilisi and other Georgian cities, the government announced that it would not go ahead with the parliamentary process. At first glance, this could be interpreted as a victory for the pro-European opposition. Even if the opposition remains on its guard. The vast majority of 3.6 million Georgians who want to leave the tutelage of Moscow and join the European Union fear that this is a new Euromaidanthe protests that took place in this square in central Kyiv in 2013 and toppled the then pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. The joy of the Ukrainians therefore did not last very long. The following year, Russia invaded the Ukrainian peninsula and opened two separatist enclaves in Lugansk and Donetsk.

“In recent years, and especially in the past 18 months, the ruling coalition in Georgia has taken a number of measures aimed at move the country away from the West and gradually bring it into Russia’s sphere of influence», is the conclusion of a report prepared by the study center European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). The report points to Bidzina Ivanishvili, former Prime Minister and billionaire, as one of the drivers of this shift towards Moscow. “Much of the responsibility for this change in the EU lies with the oligarch and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose Georgian Dream Party dominates the ruling coalition,” the report said. Ivanishvili made a fortune, calculated by Forbes in certain $6.4 billion, in Russia during its turbulent transition to a market economy, and was part of an influential group of Russian bankers who supported Vladimir Putin’s rise to power. He then returned to Georgia and formed the party of Georgian dream inspired by United Russiawho keeps Putin in power.

In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia and the call was recorded five day warwhich killed more than 600 people, in support of the separatist regions of Abjasie there South Ossetia. The first, located on the Black Sea, is one of the favorite places for wealthy Russians to spend their summer holidays; the second is located in the center of the country, on the border with the Russian region called North Ossetia. Both regions have their own small security force, but it is the Russian border service – under the Federal Security Service, one of the intelligence agencies inherited from the KGB – which guards what for Moscow is a “border”. A fence of almost 400 kilometers has been erected. The strip is also patrolled on the Georgian side by patrols of the monitoring mission of the European Union in Georgia (EUMM).

In the enclaves, it is estimated that there are approximately 13,000 Russian soldiers ready to intervene in any conflict that could jeopardize the “Russian character” of these areas. The only countries that recognize the “independence” of enclaves are: Venezuela, Nicaragua, Syria and Nauru.

The two enclaves remain closed in on themselves and totally dependent on what Moscow provides them. The coronavirus pandemic has pushed them to isolate themselves even more. “It allows Russia to move forward in its fixation on determining the outward orientation of the post-Soviet space,” explained the Georgian MP Nikoloz Samkharadzewho heads the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, in an interview with the BBC. The MP points out that the Kremlin is using South Ossetia and Abkhazia as a “stronghold” in an attempt to “destabilize” Georgia. While Pata Zakareishviliformer Georgian Minister for Reconciliation, believes that the Georgian governments themselves, which “They pushed South Ossetians and Abkhazians further into the arms of the Kremlin by not offering them credible exits while Russia showers them with gifts and comparative advantages.” “We told them that if they stayed with us, they would soon be Europeans, but the European Union never ended up accepting us in its ranks,” Zakareishvili complains bitterly.

This is precisely what we saw this week in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, during the demonstrations against the “gag laws”, in front of the Parliament, where as many national flags as European flags were waved. Georgia is caught in the same dilemma as Ukraine: wants to be admitted to the European Union as quickly as possible in an attempt to escape Russian clutches. But what the two have managed so far is just being the candy in the sandwich that spills over into Putin’s imperial appetite.

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