Natalia Antelava

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Georgian Dream party supporters in Tbilisi celebrate after the announcement of exit poll results, 26 October 2024. Photograph: Zurab Javakhadze/Reuters

MundoCáucaso,

After the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party run by the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili secured a parliamentary majority in Saturday’s Georgian election, the reaction from Moscow was jubilant. “Georgians have won. Attaboys!” wrote Margarita Simonyan, head of Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, on X.

Meanwhile, a devastated friend texted me Sunday morning to say they felt as if they “woke up in Russia”.

The question of whether Georgia would continue its drift into Russia’s orbit or change course and embrace Europe hung over the election. But with reports of voting irregularities and the largest opposition party, United National Movement (UNM), outright rejecting the result, it is unlikely to be settled anytime soon.…  Seguir leyendo »

Thousands of Russians fled into neighboring Georgia after President Vladimir Putin announced partial mobilization in September. CNN

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“Tbilisi is filled with Russian refugees”, read the 18-year-old woman’s diary entry. Soon after it was posted on social media in Georgia, it went viral, summing up the popular mood.

What’s striking about these words is that they were written in 1920, by a writer whose diary is a record of an era of uncertainty and hope. The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution had finally given tiny Georgia a chance at independence from the Russian empire. It also turned it into a refuge for thousands of Russians.

“They are running from the Bolsheviks and they are all coming here”, wrote Maro Makashvili as the newly-born liberal Georgian democracy opened its doors to thousands of Russians fleeing the revolution and the civil war it triggered.…  Seguir leyendo »

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This terrifying, world-changing conflict in Ukraine did not start in 2022. Nor did it start in 2014. It began a decade and a half ago when Russia invaded Georgia and got away with it.

"Remember the red button?" a friend texted when the first Russian bombs fell on Kyiv. In the region that has been colonized and tormented by Russia for centuries, everyone remembers the red "reset" button: the gift of an illusory fresh start that Hillary Clinton presented to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their meeting in Geneva 2009.

By then, the invasion of Georgia's capital Tbilisi had been averted, but with 20% of its territory occupied by Russia, the country's sovereignty was dangerously crippled.…  Seguir leyendo »