In the New Cold War, elections around the world are now viewed in the West as existential battles between good and evil, between the West’s “freedom” and the “authoritarianism” of Moscow and Beijing.
So it was in Georgia, the small Caucasus country that held parliamentary elections yesterday.
Ahead of the vote the US and EU threatened to slam the door on the country’s westward path and impose sanctions, they shrieked about free and fair elections, and their spooks came out of the woodwork to encourage Georgia to choose the West. One of my favorites was a piece from Gary Schmitt, a resident scholar in strategic studies and American institutions at the American Enterprise Institute, and Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former Iranian-targets officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations who is now a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. They wrote a hyperventilating piece titled “Losing Georgia to Putin” that included the following:
Like the Baltic republics, a democratic Georgia that freely rejects Moscow’s dominion serves as an icon for how a formerly Soviet people can become more humane and prosperous. Stunningly beautiful and wine-rich, stubbornly Christian but religiously tolerant, and sandwiched between Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan, and the Black Sea, Georgia has historically had an outsized influence on the region.
Yes, Georgia has wine exports (which happen to rely on the Russian market). It also counts Armenia as a neighbor, a curious omission seeing as the US and its vassals in the EU are increasingly present there but would be effectively cut off by a pro-Moscow Georgia.
There were five main parties competing in the election, and all but Georgia Dream favored a Western path for the country. Georgia Dream is currently winning handily. With 99.646% of ballots counted, the ruling Georgian Dream is winning with 54.2%. The other pro-West parties totals:
- Coalition for Change – 10.8%
- Unity – National Movement – 10%
- Strong Georgia – 8.8%
- Gakharia – For Georgia – 3%
Predictably, the opposition is refusing to accept the results and are calling for demonstrations. We’ll have to wait and see how far that takes them.
🇬🇪 The Georgian opposition announces mass protests.
The date, time, and location will be determined after coalition negotiations and the closing of all polling stations. President Salome Zourabichvili has stated that attempts are being made to falsify the elections in the…— CaucasusWatch (@Caucasus_Watch) October 26, 2024
The fear mongering over a Georgia Dream-led end to democracy has been amped up for months now ever since it passed a foreign agents law in the spring. That law requires NGOs and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as such with the government.
Since the 1990s, Western NGOs have played a huge role in Georgia, often filling the space that state capacity would, and it gave the Americans and Europeans sway over the country. The reporting requirement for foreign-funded groups makes it harder for US- and EU-backed organizations to affect votes or inconspicuously cook up color revolution attempts. In the runup to the vote, searches conducted by the Ministry’s Investigation Service related to “fraudulent call centers” and money laundering included two employees of the American think-tank Atlantic Council and an American outsourcing company Concentrix.
In the spring tens of thousands of Georgians protested in Tbilisi against the law—the first big step toward dictatorship they claimed. The party overruled a veto from the largely ceremonial president to pass the law. Since then, she has helped lead the charge against the ruling government:
I present the “Georgian Charter” action plan!
To rebuild trust, we need a new political reality: a distinct unity, different elections, a different parliament, and a different government! #GeorgianCharter
🔗https://t.co/9GplSRhb5U pic.twitter.com/XJ5I0NboDU
— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) May 27, 2024
A quick note about that president, the Paris-born Salome Zourabichvili. She enjoyed a thirty-year career in French spookish positions, including as second adviser to the French Embassy in Chad during the Paris-backed coup led by Idriss Déby. She was also director of International and Strategic Affairs at the General Secretariat of National Defense and worked with the Bureau of Strategic Affairs of NATO. From 2003 to 2004 she was French ambassador to Georgia and then moved seamlessly into the spot of Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs after being appointed by former President Mikhail Saakashvili, the guy who led Georgia into a disastrous 2008 war against Russia. Zourabichvili has been involved in Georgian politics ever since.
Zourabichvili stated ahead of the vote that she rules out any outcome from the elections other than the victory of pro-European forces. The US and EU have been issuing threats to Georgia ever since the foreign agents law passed in the spring.
The West doesn’t have much to offer aside from EU membership. Brussels gave Georgia “candidate status” in December 2023 but that was effectively put on hold after the foreign agents law passed. EU officials will, however, likely slap sanctions on the Georgian Dream leaders — as will the US.
More measures were working their way through the US Congress with the threat of passage looming over yesterday’s vote.
War criminal Putin should not be allowed to shape future of Georgia says @RepJoeWilson the author of MEGOBARI act in US Congress pic.twitter.com/FnveOENCra
— Formula NEWS | English (@FormulaGe) July 12, 2024
Over the summer the Biden administration imposed visa restrictions against dozens of Georgian officials, suspended $95 million in aid to Georgia, and let it be known that it had prepared a package of sanctions just in case.
This bill is a declaration of war against Georgia. https://t.co/7WeT6OkObd
— Sopo Japaridze (@sopjap) May 25, 2024
On October 23 U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan regurgitated the usual talking points about free and fair elections, but with the US and EU stick-heavy approach it’s fair to wonder just how free the vote was, and yet Georgia Dream still won going away.
Georgia Dream
While Georgia Dream might be the target of Western strong arming, it’s also no group of saints.
Some observers believed that the party might have overstepped with promises to ban most of the opposition should it win a constitutional majority and it would be hurt at the polls. The party’s stated justifications for such a ban include allegations that the opposition wants to use Georgia “open the second front” against Russia, as well as its assault on “family values” through “pseudo-liberal ideology” like the legalization of sex-change surgery, the legalization of other so-called genders beyond female and male.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, one of the richest men in Georgia, bankrolls the party and acts as one of its figureheads and its chief loose cannon. He has continued to talk about political bans while referring to parts of the opposition as Nazis, a tumor that must be cut out, and a plague.
Segments of the opposition, according to Ivanishvili, are part of the “global party of war” who want to use Georgia against Russia. That would hardly be surprising, but Ivanishvili and company have been making this claim for some time, although the evidence is yet to be unveiled.
Georgia Dream wasn’t always at odds with the West. Like the US and EU, it follows neoliberal ideology, and it had largely followed the EU-NATO path since coming to power in 2012 — and even today party members say they would like to pursue EU membership and NATO cooperation but on their own sovereign terms.
The party took steps to increase Gerogia’s sovereignty in recent years, however. In 2021, it ended the U.S. training program for Georgia’s military. And the big one came earlier this year with the aforementioned foreign agents law.
Ukraine helped change the calculus. Party members speak frequently about how NATO membership has been dangled in front of Ukraine, and the entire debacle for Kiev has also made pursuit of membership in Western blocs less attractive.
Viewed in this light, it’s unsurprising that Georgia Dream performed so well in yesterday’s election. Like most voters everywhere, Georgians just want peace and a decent paycheck. Here’s a report from RFA/RL in early October acknowledging that fact while admitting that the opposition hardly campaigned outside a few urban areas. The US loves itself a lesser of two evils election, but that type of proposition increasingly favors the East in the New Cold War.
The fact that the EU economy is struggling while Russia’s is on the upswing means Georgians are reckoning with long held beliefs that the EU and West in general is the key to unlocking a better future. At the same time, the opposition to everything Russian comes across as heavy handed. A fair amount of Georgians have fond memories of the economic stability of the Soviet era. Nowadays that’s branded as Russian disinfo by the pro-west crowd.
Russia is one of the country’s top trading partners and turnover has been steadily increasing.
Georgia’s trade with Russia, China, and regional partners dwarfs the economic ties with the EU and US. At the same time, the war in Ukraine makes Georgia a more attractive transit country. And that means alarm bells are likely going off in situation rooms in DC right now.
Georgia and the US Black Sea Strategy
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien made clear in a July Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation hearing what the US’ real problems with Georgia are:
Two things. One is it should be clear to the governing party in Georgia that there is a path back, that having free and fair elections without violence against civil society, making whatever transparency requirements they want. This Foreign Agent Law, make it compatible with EU law rather than compatible with Russian law, and not have China develop a deep water port in Anaklia. These are steps that are really important for Georgia to take.
Here seems like a good point to note that the US has its own Foreign Agents Registration Act, and that Georgia’s law does not mean that these NGOs cannot operate; they just must register. But Washington wants to be able funnel unlimited amounts of dark money into the country to steer its politics.
There is a little more detail to O’Brien’s second point on the Chinese port. The US, of course, is not offering to build a port in China’s place. O’Brien does not mention that the state-backed Chinese consortium selected to build Georgia’s deep sea port submitted the sole bid. There was a past effort to build it that involved the US, but that didn’t go well. Here’s some background from RFE/RL:
A previous attempt to build the port in Anaklia by a consortium formed between Georgia’s TBC Bank and U.S.-based Conti International was canceled by the government in 2020 after years of political controversy that saw TBC co-founders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze facing money-laundering charges.
Following the charges, the American investor pulled out and the project ground to a halt until the government canceled the $2.5 billion port contract.
Georgia already has Black Sea ports in close proximity to Ochamchire which are currently serving as connecting links between Europe and wider areas of Central Asia, which includes a range of countries stretching from the South Caucasus to China’s western Xinjiang region. While it’s unlikely the Middle Corridor becomes a major route connecting China and Europe due to significant geographic, political, economic issues that make it difficult to match other maritime or land-based transportation options, it’s still a big deal for Georgia and the countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus. As of now Georgia is the only route to the Black Sea that makes sense — unless progress is made on the Zangezur Corridor through southern Armenia.
While Chinese influence in Georgia might take a hit due to yesterday’s election, its influence in the Caucasus is growing. Azerbaijan is strategically the most important country in the region due its fossil fuel wealth. Baku and Beijing signed a Joint Declaration on establishing a strategic partnership at this year’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. The economic components of that agreement focused on cooperation in oil and gas production and transport infrastructure — i.e., continuing their pursuit of connectivity through the Middle Corridor, also known as the Trans-Caspian International Trade Route. It could also mean more competition for dwindling EU energy suppliers.
The Chinese are also working on major highway projects in Georgia. Sometimes it seems the US doesn’t want to see anything built at all. It does, however, want to control. In this case that means the current rickety routes connecting central Asia and its vast resources of energy, metals, coal, and cotton to Europe and subsea power cables connecting South Caucasus energy to the EU. What gives the US an advantage — if we want to call it that — is that by operating so far from home it can play recklessly. While there are US business interests in the region and Washington would prefer to control more, it’s more damaging for Russia and China if a country there goes up in flames. That’s probably why we’re seeing Russia branch out and assist in the degradation of Western “assets” in Africa and the Middle East, but that’s a story for another day.
The US strategy is similar to hostage taking. It would like to control but the fallback option if its demands aren’t met is destruction. The 2008 Georgia-Russia war was a disaster for Georgia, but it did achieve US goals of poisoning ties between the two countries for more than a decade until Georgia Dream recently sought to repair them. We’ll now likely see how much chaos the western-backed NGOs can organize in the country or if the foreign agents law passed earlier this year had its desired effect.
The US is also opposed to the Russian military base plans in Abkhazia, but there’s little Georgia can do there as Russia recognized Abkhazia as independent and stationed troops there following the war. Russia is also helping with the reconstruction of the Abkhaz railway system, which could enhance Moscow’s connections to the Middle East and help to solidify Caucasus corridors that bypass Western-controlled routes — but that now looks unlikely in the immediate future with yesterday’s results.
Construction of a permanent Russian naval base in Ochamchire, Abkhazia, is also underway roughly 18 miles (30km) from the planned Chinese-operated deep-sea port in Anaklia.
The US National Security Council (NSC) is currently working to formalize a Black Sea security and development strategy across government agencies, but the current National Defense Authorization Act already outlines several pillars of that strategy that can effectively be boiled down to “keep Russia and China out and the US and NATO in.”
What that envisions is an arc of “rules-based order” states from the Caspian to the Adriatic that would allow the US to exercise control over the movement of energy and goods through the region, and especially in the South Caucasus, which is positioned at the intersection of burgeoning East-West and North-South transport corridors. It’s one part of the US bid for global dominance, which seeks to control key maritime corridors and choke points. Russia, China, and others are naturally seeking to utilize other routes or develop them as backup options in the case of isolations directed against them. And the US is trying to close those down by whatever means necessary.
As Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien put it before the recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee subcommittee hearing “The Future of Europe”:
[We are] are working to foster deeper cooperation among the Black Sea states. But there remain challenges to democracy in some quarters, where backsliding is a significant concern. We must maintain our focus on countries like Georgia, working with like minded partners to promote measures that strengthen democracy and incentivize a return by these governments to a Euro-Atlantic path. In Russia’s periphery, we seek to help those countries that have struggled between the pull of EU accession and the pressure of Russia’s autocracy, and work with those leaders to get them out of the ‘grey zone’ and into western-style democracies. We are building a path for countries in the Western Balkans, Moldova, and the Caucasus independent of malign influence from the PRC and Russia. Some elites in that periphery are bucking against making the hard reforms needed to join the EU and NATO. We must work together to ensure those reforms are done.
That strategy just took another big hit.
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The US version of democracy: Of course, free and fair elections, so long as you vote according to our wishes. Otherwise, we will sanction you, stage color revolutions and regime change you until we get the results that serve our interests (not yours).
Honestly, you cannot make this up. The US abuses the concept of democracy the way Netanyahu abuses the concept of antisemitism. And each destroys its own castle from the inside out. What a dysfunctional relationship they share.
Mao and Stalin had similar definitions for “democracy”.
Mao More Than Ever!
Mao and Stalin could fix USA.
Talking about the regional geostrategical chess being played here my question is? Would these electoral results change also US’s take on the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks? I might be completely mistaken but my understanding was that the US wanted that agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan to cement a transit route through a friendly Georgia for Caspian resources. May be not i f they now consider the Georgia Dream government as Russian-friendly. According to the West-friendly JAM there has been a meeting between Pashinian and Aliyeb at the BRICS summit in Kazan with talks on the potential peace agreement. Of course the pro-Western commenters say this was irrelevant yet it seems to me that things are getting out of US control. I hope that someone with better knowledge can chime in.
James O’Brien states that “… there remain challenges to democracy in some quarters, where backsliding is a significant concern”. I presume he is referring to Russian – and other – minorities being denied the right to have their children taught in their own languages, get passports easily, and to enjoy demoocratice rights in three of the Baltic Potemkin Hamlets. If so, good on him. I cannot possibly imagine he is referring to Georgia, which does allow Russian speakers to enjoy all the benefits of democracy and allows political and adminstrative autonomy for the Russian speakers of South Ossetia, and allowing a French woman, once employed by the French government the French Ambassador to Ukraine whose prompt respnse to a parliamentary election is to commit an act of sedition. How very French. And not in a good way.
Logically, one would think that it would be in the best interests of Georgia to be a facilitator of trade between East & West. After all, what they have is geography.
Logically, it would be in Europe’s best interests to have good relations and trade with everyone.
The US & EU leadership seem only to want a world in which they control everything, and everyone. What is actually in their interests in a world they do not control is beyond their comprehension.
Yes. This logic also applied to Ukraine, for similar reasons.
But the US has never cared much for neutrality; we don’t do “non-alignment.” You’re either with us or with the terrorists – I mean the “autocrats.” And as Conor rightly points out:
“The US strategy is similar to hostage taking. It would like to control but the fallback option if its demands aren’t met is destruction. The 2008 Georgia-Russia war was a disaster for Georgia, but it did achieve US goals of poisoning ties between the two countries for more than a decade until Georgia Dream recently sought to repair them. We’ll now likely see how much chaos the western-backed NGOs can organize in the country or if the foreign agents law passed earlier this year had its desired effect.”
One can’t emphasize this often enough. Destabilization, conflict, war, chaos – these are not unintended consequences but US/NATO policy options for nations that do not cooperate. It’s an old story, and getting older all the time.
Thanks Conor for another very informative discussion.
Who is Europe? Who is this EU leadership? And which European interests are they serving? By what mechanism are are national leaders being converted into Agents Smith? Is it the Franco-German axis that’s co-opted other important EU countries (Germánics + north Italy) and the comprador elite of southern and Eastern ones?
Considering that the dysfunctional plutocratic controlled U.S. political system is the most shining model of “western style democracy,” is it any wonder that much of the world is wisely rejecting it?
The Georgians aren’t stupid and they actually have a memory. They remember that the US and NATO encouraged them to attack Russian forces back in 2008 but when a Russian army came right back at them, the US/NATO was nowhere to be seen and they were left swinging in the wind. They lost two disputed provinces out of that war but it could have been much worse. And now the US/EU wants to force an anti-Russian government on the Georgians so that they can have another go at the Russians and if it sets their country on fire, well then so be it. They will be standing by with the gasoline. And that Salome Zourabichvili? She will be on a private jet back to France where Macron will meet her with a medal for her services and a nice cozy placement in a think tank somewhere.
Of course things can very easily work out different. Both Russia and China can throw them lifelines and help them to make their economy more robust. Actually it can end up better than this. So what happens if next year Russia sponsors Georgia to be a full partner with BRICS which will put them on the path to BRICS membership? With BRICS there is room to breath and to develop. To enter NATO and/or NATO is like entering a prison with the hallmarks of Hotel California. This time next year Georgia should ask both Sweden and Finland how NATO membership is working out for them.
I just read from Vzglyad (vz.ru) a comment by Petre Mamradze, who has served as head of State Chancellery of Georgia and chief of staff of Georgian president, that he’s worried that Saakasvili’s party received as many votes as it did. He thinks the younger generations have not been educated well enough what a catastrophe Saakasvili’s era was for Georgia.
Mamradze himself is old enough to remember how USAID funded the Rose Revolution which brough Saakasvili to power.
He also says the opposition seems to lack resources and coherence, since they failed to rush the Central Election Committee immediately after the results were announced, as is customary in Georgia.
The Rules Based Order of Hotel California: you can check out, but you can never leave.
I well remember the more tiresome clichés of the Soviet era. This “autocracy” or “democracy” characterization is right up there. Do these clowns in DC ever listen to themselves? Then this, then US can have a foreign agents registration act but for another to have one is hostile? The “you will do it my way and you will like it -or else” attitude especially when presented with that why would you do otherwise tone of puzzlement is equally far far past its sell-by date. Bullies in good suits are still bullies.
Unfortunately, yes: I think themselves are all they ever listen to. Despite expensive Ivy League educations, they seem to grasp little to nothing of the nuanced complexity of world history, languages, geography, economics, trade, religions, preferring simple propaganda and junior high us-versus-them, good-versus-evil storylines. And as you say, they’re ignorant of the inherent contradictions in their “worldview”. But the gig is up for these maladaptive clowns, as the times, they are a-changin’, and they have zip to offer anyone except misery, war, and austerity.
“zip to offer . . . ” and failure – don’t forget failure. It’s a very important US tradition.
“US government tradition” I should have said. In the 30’s and 40’s, even the fifties US industry and even some aspects of culture could hold their heads up with the rest as pretty technologically and artistically innovative. Now it’s all been ‘financialised’ and, as someone has recently coined, ‘enshitified’.
+++
Glenn Diesen has a great article where he discusses reality as a social construct, and even though he’s talking about European leaders and intellectuals, the same could be said about the US
“The political class that emerged in Europe after the Cold War have become excessively ideological and committed to narratives to socially construct new realities. The Europeans embrace of postmodernism entails questioning the existence of objective reality as our understanding of reality is shaped by language, culture and unique historical perspectives. The postmodernists therefore often seek to change narratives and language as a source of political power. If reality is a social construction, then the grand narratives can be more important than facts. Indeed, ideological narratives must be defended from inconvenient facts.”
glenndiesen.substack.com/p/how-europes-new-political-class-began
When I read Diesen’s article, that was a memorable passage for me as well.
Yes, and I love the term “civil society.” That’s right up there with “rules based order.” One would think that “civil society” might mean – concerned, engaged, peaceful citizens who go to work every day…something like that. But, no…it means George Soros’ foundation and the National Endowment for Democracy and any other imperial associated NGO shill. Nice to see people wising-up to this scam.
Perhaps the staged protests against Georgia’s winning party are a dress rehearsal for what the Democrats my do when Donald Trump wins.
Now would be a great opportunity for China to mess with the US by banning the export of all medical tranquilizers and the like into the US. :)
And banning the export of masks, since the US proved unable to manufacture enough masks for its population last time around (https://www.npr.org/2020/09/17/913093387/why-cant-america-make-enough-n95-masks-6-months-into-pandemic-shortages-persist)…SMH
you mean Xanax, i suppose,lol.
add in the ritalin adderal and all the ssri’s and watch the centers of power in usa seize up.
in the sense that i use my tiny county as a sort of proxy for us society…all our local pmc types are on those drugs.
especially xanax.
ive watched the effects when mixed with chardonnay often enough.
I don’t think the “Democrats” understand the fragility of democracy, or they do and they don’t want one, so I agree we can expect rather undemocratic behaviour. I think the same is true of the Republican camp, though…recall how Trump was behind the scenes in a nearby tent orchestrating Jan 6th as it was unfolding. Either way, so-called democracy is done, everywhere, it seems. It never really had a chance anywhere. Occupy was squashed and with it there went any hope of changing anything.
“What the Democrats may do when Donald Trump wins…” Yes. I am waiting for that too. So far, they have become just what they started with neocon HRC in 2016.
Are the “fusion centres” that co-ordinated the Occupy extinguishment still up and running? Those sorts of bureaucratic organizations have long and often ‘questionable’ lives. I take as my guidance here the truism that power is never relinquished after being originally won, even when the reason for that power grab has gone away.
My theory is that there will be some sort of “False Flag” action that can be conveniently blamed on the MAGA population cohorts. Think the ‘Brooks Brothers Riot’ but with LL Bean apparel and real guns.
We’re treating the upcoming election as a possible disaster scenario and preparing accordingly. If nothing happens, we will still have some more “stuff” in the Prepper’s Pantry.
They may not even need to chamge the name of the place where they are “insurrecting.” ;)
I don’t think that Harris will win, but if she does I see the MAGAs doing the same thing (and not “but worse” FWIW).
What I like to remind myself of: The Dems and Repubs have not each been able to get even 50% of registered voters and a lot US citizens still aren’t registered to vote (or can’t because incarceration or other things).
Hello Mr Hudson, i relly would like to -with all the others of course- read an article from you about the definition of the term ”Democracy”…..in the end , some how someday we all need to clear our view about it and and define it by the terms of any one who contributed to build this ”myth” from Aristoteles, Demosthenis, Ioystinianos,Zean Zack Russeou Voltaire ,Machiavelli,Capodistrias…..qtherwise we are going to be contemned to live with modern definitions that are far away from the true nature of the original idea and from places like this we need the opinion of any one who has something to add to the entire talking about the theme democracy…..
If you try to find news about this, it seems that every news story has characterizations of “violence” front and center. I tried to figure out what exactly was the scale of this violence. I only found this from AP:
2 hospitalizations doesn’t seem like much at all. Surely, there will be more civil strife in the US on Nov 5, right?
Well, the Georgian officials said that somebody was driving a bus from polling station to another with 30 or so young men then bullying people outside the said polling stations and some even entering the station and shoving ballots into the boxes.
That obviously was not very widespread, as one bud can’t really visit that many places before the police will catch on. At least here in the news EU observers reported only a few “abnormalities” and “disturbances” and the elections legal and valid.
Well, I sincerely hope so, and in a very big way. Not that I bear most of the people of the USA any ill will – I have some friends there. It’s just that it may be the best and quickest way left to disrupt the Empire, and send it into a terminal decline, and thus possibly averting a nuclear war.
This Georgian election result is coming at the same time as a disappointing result for pro-Europe ruling party in Moldova. It held it’s first round of voting in the presidential election and a referendum on Euro-integration last week. From a Russian-language Moldovan newspaper:
Sandu was hoping to clinch by getting over 50%, but only received 42.5%, and doesn’t appear to have the votes at the moment to win in the second round. The referendum to amend the constitution to declare that the citizens of Moldova wish to join the EU, passed, but with only 50.5% of the vote (and would have failed, with only 46%, if only non-diaspora votes were considered).
This is the consequenco of over 70 years of gaslighting perpetrated by Moscow against Moldovans in R. of Moldova. One should know that there are also Moldovans in Romania. Romania is the result of the union of Wallachia and what was left of principality of Moldova after 1812.
The said gaslighting consisted on trying to convince Moldovans that they are different from Romanians, that they have a different language and different history. Such acts of cultural and historical cleansing were not perpetrated against other soviet socialist republics within USSR.
Beside the gaslighting, it is clear that the EU stance in the Ukrainian war, and the fear to not become another war victim itself, also played a role in the vote.
Maybe not within the USSR, but in the southern Balkans they midwifed the Tito- driven birth of “Macedonian” Nationhood by pressing communist Bulgaria to recognise this as a separate nation. Tito wanted to diminish Serbia, from which this republic (or mainly Bulgarians and Albanians) was carved out, and Stalin did this as a nationalist feign and bridgehead to lay claim on the Aegean. Greek Communists in the civil war were pressured to play along for the creation of a “United Macedonia”. Similar geostrategic logic as Moldova, and shocking that within 2 generations you can transition populations through propaganda to re-identify as lampshades and write truth out of collective history.
Conor Gallagher’s article helpfully illuminates background and specifics. Brian Berletic’s analyses on The New Atlas are useful in this regard, and Gallagher’s statement rounds out the picture:
“While there are US business interests in the region and Washington would prefer to control more, it’s more damaging for Russia and China if a country there goes up in flames.”
The quote from the think tank drivel sums up what the West really thinks of those outside Western Europe:
“Like the Baltic republics, a democratic Georgia that freely rejects Moscow’s dominion serves as an icon for how a formerly Soviet people can become more humane and prosperous.”
They are less humane. Part of “the jungle” that needs to be guided. Like the West is the God from the Bible and in control of some imaginary utopia or Garden of Eden.
They’ve lost their damn minds.
Baltic Republics are basket cases where men have run away. Look at sex ratio it is dire. Latvia got stroppy with Belarus and now begs Germany to take its exports. The Baltic states have nothing and are barely democratic disenfranchising swathes of population and persecuting opponents as in Neo-Fascist Poland under Gauleiter Tusk
“The Chinese are also working on major highway projects in Georgia. Sometimes it seems the US doesn’t want to see anything built at all. It does, however, want to control. In this case that means the current rickety routes connecting central Asia and its vast resources of energy, metals, coal, and cotton to Europe and subsea power cables connecting South Caucasus energy to the EU. What gives the US an advantage — if we want to call it that — is that by operating so far from home it can play recklessly. While there are US business interests in the region and Washington would prefer to control more, it’s more damaging for Russia and China if a country there goes up in flames. That’s probably why we’re seeing Russia branch out and assist in the degradation of Western “assets” in Africa and the Middle East, but that’s a story for another day.
The US strategy is similar to hostage taking. It would like to control but the fallback option if its demands aren’t met is destruction…”
That hit the nail on the head.
https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1850446632820556164
https://xcancel.com/MyLordBebo/status/1850446632820556164
🇺🇦🇬🇪 COLOR REVOLUTION: Ukranian nationalist politician Goncharenko is in Georgia, to check on the election.
The election decides if Georgia reconciles with Russia, or becomes a proxy for the west and confronts Russia.
Now even nationalists Ukranian politicians came to Georgia to help with the color revolution, to ensure Georgia will be an anti Russian proxy.
The stakes are high and Ukraine needs a second front!
1/
“It’s one part of the US bid for global dominance, which seeks to control key maritime corridors and choke points. Russia, China, and others are naturally seeking to utilize other routes or develop them as backup options in the case of isolations directed against them. And the US is trying to close those down by whatever means necessary.”
this jumped out at me.
and with the language in the powerpoint slide of the mugabert(or whatever) law that joe wilson is pushing…the usa oligarchy really thinks rather highly of itself.
and while it seems that the vast majority of usians still cannot…or will not…see the imperialism…once you do see it, it turns up everywhere.
That’s because it is framed as “spreading democracy”. Or more deceptively, as “our values”.
Can someone please get in contact with Joe Lauria, publisher of Consortium News, to let him know his site has been hacked OR whoever hosts his site has massively screwed up and redirected it to some development server of a web developer.
URGENT!
It’s back on line again, although maybe a little slow and eccentric, but then it always was.
Thank you James, but I just went there now and it’s still the architectural nonsense. Closed page, cleared cache, still the nonsense. I hope this is just a mistake. Eccentric, yes!
Yes. Me too as of Monday, 28-Oct, Europe.
They have been hacked.
Still not working as of 10:30 EST.
It’s amazing and astonishing that the Great Game and it’s continued bid for global oil resources hasn’t missed a beat as the damage from increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has become more and more apparent.
It’s like people fighting over staterooms on the Titanic after the ship is already sinking. By the time any of these efforts come to fruition, the need for oil will be largely eliminated, at best, or civilization as we know it will be gone at worst.
Apparently Western oil companies and their minions in the various State departments can’t find anything better to do then turn people against each other and start wars in their quest for land and oil. Doesn’t make one terribly optimistic about the future of human beings.
“Doesn’t make one terribly optimistic about the future of human beings.”
Read this, in support of your contention:
https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/will-there-be-a-second-stone-age
This article by the same author is also quite eye-opening, especially given the current “AI” craze’s quest for boundless energy supplies:
https://open.substack.com/pub/thehonestsorcerer/p/2025-a-civilizational-tipping-point
Latest news are that the President and the opposition parties do not recognize the electoral results and are calling fraud and protests. This in El Pais (in Spanish) which has failed to provide any news on the election results until these set of news.
Unsurprising this reaction. The new normal is calling fraud for any electoral result that does not conform to Western expectations.
For some reason, the US thinks it can catch flies with vinegar and a threat of a punch in the mouth.
China Georgia trade is much larger than Russia – Georgia trade, and anyone with a brain can “follow the money.” $1.2 billion from China exported to Georgia.
https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-country/chn/partner/geo
Funny how the Euro PuppetParl now demands EU blockade Azerbaijan gas supplies unless it bows to EU dictates
Azerbaijan needs Russia as a counterweight to China
US is playing imperial games without an army so it is simply colonising through puppets as in U.K. and Germany
There are parallels between what is happening now and the course of Georgian history in the late 18th century, when the bulk of present-day Georgia first compromised its sovereignty (treaty of Georgievsk, 1783) and then surrendered it in 1801 following a brutal Persian invasion in 1795. Georgia considered that, when faced with the threat of Ottoman and, more especially, Persian predation, incorporation into Russia was the least worst option. There was some resistance to this, but by 1811 the process of annexation was complete. The best account of this process remains that by the rather tragic scholar D. M. Lang, ‘The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, 1658-1832’ (1957), which is not nearly as well known as it ought to be (for example, it was overlooked by Christoph Baumer in the second volume of his otherwise excellent history of the Caucasus published last year).
This time it is possible that a sufficient section of Georgian public opinion has concluded that: (i) the promises of the West are essentially counterfeit, as the West lacks sufficient reach and muscle in the Caucasus (witness the recent fate of Armenia), and that a continued turn against Russia therefore risks disaster; (ii) the West is obviously in secular decline whilst Russian prosperity is increasing, and so the lire of the West is altogether less compelling than it was; (iii) Ukraine is likely to take priority in the allocation of subsidies and could crowd out Georgia (and Moldova), but in any event the provision of sufficient subsidies could be blocked by existing member states who may be unwilling to pay; and (iv) a deeper rapprochement with Russia may help facilitate the restoration of a measure of Georgian autonomy over Abkhazia (lost in 1992-93) and South Ossetia (lost in 2008) which would be much the greater prizes – indeed there may be some Georgians ‘cleansed’ from Abkhazia in the 1990s who may wish to recover their homes and property.