Political turmoil has resumed in Georgia, as the pro-Moscow government, following recent parliamentary elections that its critics labeled rigged, has decided to suspend talks to admit the tiny former Soviet republic into the European Union.
The small but ancient Caucasus country, located at a crossroads between Slavic, Turkish and Persian cultures, has recently found itself caught in the middle of a geopolitical standoff between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the democratic, wealthy West.
Here’s a look at why Georgia’s future matters domestically and internationally.
The official results of parliamentary elections on October 26 gave a victory to the ruling Georgian Dream party, formed by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia.
At the same time, opinion polls have repeatedly shown that most Georgians want their country to join the EU – and supporters of joining the 27-member bloc have turned out in large numbers to oppose the government’s move to suspend the process.
More than 200 people have been detained following four nights of protests in the capital, Tbilisi, where thousands rallied outside parliament – a huge number for a country of 3.7 million people.
While Georgian Dream controls parliament, President Salome Zourabichvili, whose role is largely ceremonial, has spoken out against what she says is the ruling party’s crackdown on freedom of expression. She says many of the arrested protesters have head and facial injuries.
Some see similarities between the recent protests in Georgia and those in Ukraine, another former Soviet republic, earlier this century as Kiev sought to move closer to the West.
The Georgian government’s move to suspend the EU membership process came after the European Parliament passed a resolution criticising the October 26 election, saying it was neither free nor fair.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow views recent events in Georgia as similar to the turmoil in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014, when the pro-Russian president decided not to sign an association deal with the EU – and eventually fled amid political unrest.
Georgia, like Ukraine, is seeking to join the NATO military alliance, which Putin’s Russia views as a step too far for Western expansion into the former Soviet – and Russian – sphere of influence.
Russia has a long border with Georgia, which does not border any EU country – although it shares a border with NATO member Turkey.
In August 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which had made a failed attempt to gain control of its breakaway province of South Ossetia. Moscow recognised the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia, and established military bases there.
On Saturday, the US State Department announced it was suspending its strategic ties with Georgia and condemned the country’s decision to halt its efforts toward EU entry.
Last December the EU granted Georgia candidate status on the condition that it met the bloc’s stringent entry requirements.
But in the spring, the EU blocked Georgia’s entry and cut financial aid after the Georgian parliament passed a “foreign influence” law widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms.