Is Russia about to succeed in roping Georgia, the former Soviet state, back into its orbit, against the will of the Georgian people?
The country’s controversial election last weekend increasingly suggests that Russian President Vladimir Putin may just succeed in his project of returning Tbilisi to Moscow’s sphere of influence, despite polls showing that a vast majority of Georgians want their future linked to a democratic, prosperous European West.
If you want to bring a country under your control, sending an invading army and going to war is one of the costliest, riskiest, most difficult methods. Russia has learned that the hard way in Ukraine. That’s why, Georgian opposition leaders claim, Russia is instead seeking the help of the ruling Georgia Dream party and its founder, the Moscow-friendly billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, to bring the country back into the Kremlin’s fold.