US Doesn’t Need Independent Georgia, Will Foment Coup in Tbilisi – Expert
/ Go to the mediabankOpposition protest in Tbilisi
The US froze its strategic partnership with Georgia on November 30, after Tbilisi said it was of temporarily suspending EU membership talks. “Georgia being independent of the North Atlantic [Alliance’s] structure and the EU political course is disadvantageous to the United States, because America has its own geopolitical goals [in the Caucasus],” Shota Apkhaidze, director of the Caucasus Center for Islamic Studies, told Sputnik.Apkhaidze stressed that the US has invested billions of dollars in Georgia and opposes its detente with Russia, China or Iran. Georgia has been the second largest recipient of US foreign and security aid in Eurasia after Ukraine. The US Congressional Research Service September report revealed that the US has provided more than $6.2 billion in assistance to Georgia since 1992. Georgia has also been designated one of NATO’s “closest partners” and an important part of the alliance’s Black Sea strategy. But “the leadership of the Georgian Dream actually turned out to be the only government of independent Georgia that entered into a confrontation with the West,” the pundit stressed. The US froze its strategic partnership with Georgia on November 30, after Tbilisi said it was of temporarily suspending EU membership talks. The ruling Georgian Dream party’s move followed European Parliament attempts to interfere in the nation’s affairs by denouncing recent general elections as “unfair” and insisting they be re-run. Ironically, Georgian Dream has never been a “pro-Russian” party and has had clear pro-Western aspirations, Apkhaidze noted. “The Georgian dream was absolutely not going to change its foreign policy vector,” he stressed. “They were simply forced by the West – the EU and the US – to take such steps.” The government “protects sovereignty because it is forced to do so,” Apkhaidze said, warning that the US might organize a repeat of the 2014 Euromaidan coup in Ukraine – which followed the blueprint of the 2003 ‘Rose Revolution’ in Georgia.
AnalysisGeorgia Unrest Part of West’s Grand Strategy to Use Russia’s Neighbors as Pawns in Hybrid War29 October, 12:40 GMT
