When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine on February 24, most of the region’s watchers expected Georgia to rally side by side Kyiv. Yet, just days into the Russian invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky was heard recalling his ambassador Georgia accusing the Georgian Government of “immoral” actions.
How could this happen? Contrary to many expectations, the Georgian Dream Government consistently avoided mounting a joint diplomatic and political front together with Ukraine on the world stage before, but also during this war. The Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili flatly denied to join any of the western sanctions imposed upon Russia. Georgian Dream Chair Irakli Kobakhidze even keeps insisting joining sanctions would be a “provocation,” that would ‘harm Georgia and its people’ and ‘drag Georgia into war.’
It is one thing to stay away from the sanctions, but another to attack them. Yet that is precisely what PM Garibashvili did by publicly questioned their effectiveness. “They don’t work” and that “diplomacy is the only way,” he said.
Echoing the Georgian Dream’s constant blaming for the previous government for the Russian invasion of 2008, Garibashvili went even further by stating that “Ukraine could not avert the war.”
In an instant, Ukraine-support mass rallies in Tbilisi became anti-Government.
The news that Georgia and Russia had reached a trade deal allowing 15 Georgian dairy companies to access the Russian market rattled the already angered Georgian public.
Doubling down on entering in this kind of negotiation with Russia after it launched the war of aggression in Ukraine, Georgia’s Agriculture Minister said the deal was “opening new opportunities for Georgian producers.” The comments drew backlash from dairy producers themselves whose association issued a statement claiming they would not export to Russia under any circumstances.
The Ukrainian MFA blasted the Georgian Government in a strongly-worded statement saying that “the promotion of trade relations with Russia, whose armed forces are attacking peaceful Ukrainian cities with missiles and bombs, killing innocent civilians, including children, to be unacceptable in the strongest terms.”
“We call on the official Tbilisi to distance itself publicly from the decision of the Russian Federation, whose leadership is violating international law and perpetrating war crimes in Ukraine,” the statement reads.
The unprecedented statement concludes with the reminder of the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008: “Due to the 2008 Russian armed aggression against Georgia, the Georgian people, unfortunately, are well aware of the horrors of war that Ukrainians are forced to go through now. At the same time, it appears that the Georgian authorities must have forgotten all that and are now trying to seize the moment to cater for their own interests.”
Georgian Dream Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze lashed back at President Zelensky and his team, claiming that the Ukrainian leadership may be manipulated by the Georgian opposition. “Everyone knows, has multiple of its representatives in the Ukrainian authorities, including the inner circle of President Zelensky.”
And if that was not enough, the ruling party rejected a proposal by opposition factions to invite the Ukrainian President to address the Georgian Parliament. “This is not the right time,” said parliament’s speaker Shalva Papuasvili also accusing the opposition of seeking “hysteria.”
These actions did not remain unnoticed in Moscow.
“Guys, Georgia has recovered,” tweeted Margarita Simonyan, Margarita Simonyan, Russia Today’s infamous western-sanctioned editor-in-chief.
“The targeted operation to force Georgia to peace has cleansed their brains,” said anchor of flagship political talk show of Russia 24, a government-run propaganda channel.
Unlike the Government, President Salome Zourabichvili has been clearer support for Ukraine. But to ensure her steps are not being viewed in any way representing the executive, the Government cracked down on her Ukraine-related travels by cutting funding and insisting she should stay in Georgia. Even her odd praise of the Government’s handling of the war in a CNN interview did not soften Georgian Dream’s stance—it now intends to sue the president in the Constitutional Court over “unsanctioned” Ukraine-related travels.
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