GEORGIA-UKRAINE kyiv pressures Tbilisi on the conflict with Moscow

Ukraine accuses Georgia of “doing business with the most questionable Russian companies” despite the experience of the 2008 war. The response of the Tbilisi government: “They try by all means to drag us into the confrontation.”

Tbilisi () – The two “brother countries” that surround the Black Sea on both sides of the Russian coast, Ukraine and Georgia, are also on opposite sides regarding the catastrophic events of recent months. Ukraine reminds the West of the analogy of the Russian invasion in the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, and asks Tbilisi to make a clear statement on its geopolitical guidelines.

For their part, the representatives of the ruling Georgian Dream party accuse the kyiv government of acting against the interests of its own people by rejecting any negotiations with Moscow, also counting on the support of many Western political sectors. Despite everything, the adviser to the Ukrainian president Mikhail Podoljak has launched an appeal to Georgia to decide whether to “support cannibals or freedom”, which has caused a resentful Georgian reaction to accusations of collaboration with the Russians.

In an interview with the Georgian section of the Voice of America, Podoljak stated that “Ukraine can show evidence of Tbilisi’s collaboration with Moscow, and soon it will do so at the official level, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs… It is enough to see how private companies and other businesses are acting at different levels with respect to the sanctions regime established at the international level”. The Ukrainians insist that the sanctions should also be applied to the billionaire Bidzina Ivanisvili, the founder and hidden director of all decisions of the Georgian Dream, “and to all those who do cross-business with the most questionable Russian companies”.

Regarding Tbilisi’s complaints that kyiv is trying by all means to drag Georgia into the war, Podoljak replies that “Georgia has been involved in the war for a long time, it is enough to look at Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which are now criminal enclaves controlled by Russia. The chairman of the legal commission of the Georgian parliament, Anri Okhanasvili, described the Ukrainian politician as “a character hostile to Georgia, whose absurd statements do not even deserve a response.”

A few days ago the same Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskii recalled the 14th anniversary of the war between Russians and Georgians, inviting the international community not to overlook the parallels with what happened in 2022: “Much has been said about the premises and consequences of that war, and about the refusal to grant Ukraine and Georgia a plan to join NATO, which encouraged Russia to act ever more brazenly. The war in the Caucasus has not been archived but is still ongoing and therefore we must talk about what is happening now and not only remember what happened in the past, and put into practice the instruments of regional and international security”.

Westerners also criticize the Georgian Dream’s attempt to play two-pronged. Beyond the diplomatic skirmishes, military experts are quite explicit in condemning the Tbilisi ambiguities. Former commander of US ground forces in Europe Ben Hodges, for example, claims that Georgian society itself is divided. But “they must decide what they want: where do young people have the greatest opportunities? Do they want economic development or do they want to return to Soviet conditions? I am convinced that the Georgians want to stay with Europe and it is clear that Russia will do everything possible to prevent it”.

Hodges believes that the West had the illusion that Russia would fulfill the commitments signed in 2008, while 14 years later it continues to occupy the territories of the Caucasus taken from Georgian sovereignty, and that today, in order to support Tbilisi, it must be forced to decide what field it is, “because the window of possibilities will not remain open indefinitely”.