Although Georgia was made a candidate to join the European Union last December, that move has now been frozen by the EU because of “democratic backsliding – in particular a Russian-style “foreign influence” law targeting groups receiving Western funding.
The USSR may have ceased to exist more than three decades ago, but Moscow still considers much of the old Soviet empire its own backyard and Russia’s sphere of influence.
It will have appreciated Georgian Dream’s campaign promise of a “pragmatic” Russia policy, not to mention Brussels’ decision earlier this year to halt Georgia’s EU accession process.
Ivanishvili’s rhetoric has become increasingly anti-Western, indicating that under Georgian Dream might pull the country back into Russia’s orbit.
Georgians had a simple choice, the party’s founder said after voting in Tbilisi: either a government that served them, or an opposition of “foreign agents, who will carry out only the orders of a foreign country”.
He has repeatedly spoken of a “global war party” pushing the opposition towards joining the war in Ukraine, while Georgian Dream (GD) is the party of peace. For many voters the message has worked.
“The most important thing – for me, my family, my grandchildren – is peace that I wish for all Georgians,” GD voter Tinatin Gvelesiani, 55, told the BBC at a polling station in Kojori, south-west of the capital. “Only Georgian Dream” would bring peace, she added.