the law on foreign influence “would reduce freedoms”, recalls Guillaume Lagane, specialist in defense issues

Can we draw a parallel between the current situation in Georgia and that of Ukraine in 2013, during the pro-European demonstrations? “There are many parallels to be drawn between the two countries and the two situations. Georgia experienced a color revolution in 2003, the Rose Revolution, which oriented the country towards a European destiny, and since then Russia has not ‘never really resolved to lose Georgia”introduced on the set of 19/20 info Guillaume Lagane, specialist in defense issues.

After going to war with him in 2008, she then “tried in a more insidious way, by supporting (…) the Georgian Dream, which officially is an anti-Russian nationalist party, but in reality is a party that has reduced freedoms in Georgia and brought the country closer to Russia.”

Protests continue

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country’s former prime minister, officially has no title but now leads the party. He is one of the 300 richest people in the world, estimated at more than $5 billion, earned in part through trade with Russia. “Georgia is still a country that hesitates between the two options”, enlightens Guillaume Lagane. While the country obtained candidate status for the European Union in December 2023 and cooperates with NATO, “at the same time on the internal level, [il réduit] the rights of the opposition while having “always ambiguous positions”.

Protests against the foreign influence law continue in the country. His opponents accuse him in particular of preventing rapprochements between Georgia and the European Union. Guillaume Lagane specifies that the law “would reduce freedoms” in the country, which would move away “of what we consider to be the model that it must defend if it wants to join the European Union”.