The GD’s penchant for authoritarianism was also apparent within a year of it taking power. Although he officially resigned as Georgia’s Prime Minister in November 2013, Ivanishvili remained the power behind the throne as dozens of his former business allies staffed key Georgian ministries. Yet the West ignored this erosion of Georgian democracy even as it simultaneously cheered on the overthrow of Ukraine’s autocratic pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in November 2013.
Fundamentally, as the GD feigned interest in European integration, the West gave it the benefit of the doubt. After the GD passed its repressive foreign agents registration law in May, the EU waited nearly two months to halt its membership application and suspend 30 million euros of funding. On October 4, the EU warned that Georgia-EU relations would suffer, and that GD officials would be sanctioned if they tried to create a one-party state. Ivanishvili called the EU’s bluff and escalated his threats against the Georgian opposition with impunity. And so here we are today.
If the West does not take a unified stance against the GD’s human rights abuses, Georgia risks sliding more firmly into Russia’s clutches. With Belarus and Georgia in its orbit, an emboldened Moscow would strengthen anti-democratic actors in Moldova and use coercion to bully Armenia.
The West must set a redline against the GD’s abuse of power and Russia’s subversion of Georgian democracy. Not just for Georgia’s sake but in the interests of European security.
Dr Samuel Ramani is an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute