The Helsinki Commission has published a report to the U.S. Congress on preparation against long-term Russian threats, addressing current developments and prospects in Georgia. The report states that the Georgian Dream government has recently chosen an openly illiberal and pro-Russian orientation, contrary to the pro-Western attitudes of the majority of the country’s population.
The report explains that for years, Georgia was considered a pro-Western anchor in the South Caucasus. However, recent events have shown that the Georgian Dream government has become more openly anti-Western and illiberal. The document mentions attacks on opposition and civil society representatives and the country’s growing closeness to Russia. It also notes that the majority of Georgia’s population maintains clearly pro-Western attitudes, as demonstrated by several months of mass protests in spring 2024 against the Russian-style foreign influence agents law.
“This situation creates a fundamental instability in the region, where Russia continues to host garrisons (however diminished by its war on Ukraine), with a government that is openly anti-west and increasingly Russia-friendly —and a population that is fundamentally opposed,” anti-Western and friendly toward Russia, while the population fundamentally opposes this,” the Helsinki Commission report states.
The text also notes that Moscow has managed to walk a tightrope in Georgia – maintaining illegal military positions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which contradicts Georgia’s internationally recognized sovereignty, while simultaneously maintaining political goodwill with Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream regime.
The Helsinki Commission recommends that Congress pursue a “two-track policy,” which involves holding the Georgian government accountable for democratic backsliding while developing mechanisms for deeper integration into Western institutions, conditional upon the return of democratic governance. The Commission urges Congress to support civil society and democratic development in Georgia, suggesting the bipartisan “MEGOBARI Act” introduced by Joe Wilson as one mechanism for this support.
