Shifting Alliances: Has This Country Taken Sides With Putin?

When Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine in February 2022, he quickly realized that his decision was going to cause him to lose many international friends and allies.

The United States, the European Union retaliated with harsh sanctions against Moscow, while major companies have abandoned Russian territory.

Former allies like Hungary and Poland started to turn against the Kremlin as well. Even China’s one of Russia’s biggest allies and major trading partner have become ambivalent towards Moscow.

However, there’s one country in Europe where the government could turn in favor of Putin faster than you might suspect.

At first glance, Georgia might not seem like much. However, this country of 3.7 million inhabitants in the Caucasus borders on the north with Russia and south with Iran. Not exactly the best neighbors at the moment.

To top it all, Newsweek writes that the relations between the Georgian government in Tbilisi and the West are quickly going downhill.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Tbilisi and Moscow has been described by Newsweek as “ascendant” as the United States and the European Union lose their sphere of influence in the region.

According to Newsweek, Pro-Western politicians in Georgia claim that their country is being the target of a hybrid war over control ignited by Moscow.

Georgia’s parliamentary elections are programmed to take place later this year, on October 26. Many experts fear that it might be the last chance to stop the shift towards Moscow.

France24 writes that, earlier this year, the government of Georgia approved a new law in which organizations that received over 20% from abroad had to register as “agents of foreign influence”.

Critics of the bill, nicknamed “the Russian Law”, claimed that it was inspired by similar crackdowns from the Kremlin against political dissidence, particularly those opposing Vladimir Putin.

According to France24, massive demonstrations took place in the streets in Tbilisi and elsewhere as citizens expressed their rejection of the so-called Russian law.

The Georgian Dream, the party currently in government, defended itself, claiming that it was seeking to stop foreign powers to meddle in its internal affairs, Newsweek writes.

Some protestors interviewed by France24 claim to be fearful that Georgia is going backwards, specifically back when it was part of the Soviet Union.

After all, Georgia is the birthplace of Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union for several decades and one of the most influential figures of the 20th century.

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Will Georgia’s increasingly illiberal government become a helpful ally to the Kremlin? Only time will tell, but the forecast seems rather bleak.

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