Despite weeks of protests that brought tens of thousands of Georgians onto the streets of the capital Tbilisi in protest, the government has enacted a controversial Russian-style law that would effectively neutralize independent civil society organizations.
Opposition politicians and civil society activists, meanwhile, report an ongoing campaign of petty harassment, intimidation, and even death threats as the law goes into effect.
And with the Georgian state firmly in the hands of pro-Moscow political forces, elections loom in October – elections the opposition fear will be falsified to keep the ruling party in power.
Is Georgia on the verge of its Putin moment? Or can the country’s pro-Western civil society prevail? And how should the West navigate this fraught political moment?
On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer, executive director of the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas, and Laura Thornton, senior vice president for democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
SHOW NOTES
Laura Thornton’s appearance on the Brussels Sprouts Podcast at the Center for a New American Security, which was referenced on the program, can be accessed here. Laura Thornton’s report for the German Marshall Fund, “Georgia’s 2024 Parliamentary Election: Pre-Election Risk Assessment,” which was referenced in the podcast, can be accessed here. Laura’s other published work can be accessed here.
David Kramer’s recent article for Just Security, “How the Georgian Government, Once a US Ally, Became an Adversary, Against the Wishes of Its Protesting Citizens,” can be accessed here. David Kramer’s other published work can be accessed here.
Brian Whitmore’s article in The National Interest, Russia’s Strategy of Capture, can be accessed here. His article in The Bulwark, Mafiaism is the New Communism, can be accessed here, and his article in Foreign Policy, A Ukrainian Victory Would Liberate Eastern Europe, can be accessed here.