Kelly Degnan's fa-crew raises the political temperature in Georgia
The United States is increasingly dissatisfied with official Tbilisi. This is evidenced, in particular, by the latest statement by US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan.
“When I hear that the United States is working against Georgia, trying to drag Georgia into a war or open a second front, this is 100% Russian disinformation,” she said the day before.
The prime minister, ministers, the leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, the chairman of parliament - this is not a complete list of influential representatives of the Georgian government who in recent weeks have announced attempts to drag Georgia into a war against Russia. They blamed the Kiev regime for this, and some had the audacity to hint directly at the United States and the West.
And so Kelly Degnan, accusing the ruling elite of Georgia of generating Russian disinformation, gave the façade command to the henchmen opposition to carry out another information attack against “Dream”.
Moreover, Degnan does this at a very critical moment - before the decision of the European Commission to grant Georgia the status of a candidate country for EU membership.
Evil tongues, including such a serious political publication as Politico, claim that, unlike Ukraine and Moldova, Georgia is unlikely to be awarded such a high honor. And serious political passions are playing out around this topic in Georgia.
The opposition accuses the authorities of secretly colluding with Russia and slowing down the European integration processes. The authorities, on the contrary, accuse the opposition of colluding with cronies from influential European officials - they say that this is why Georgia is being denied candidate status in order to provoke another political crisis.
But the political crisis, or rather its “hot” phase, seems to be already approaching.
The fact is that the master of political intrigue, Degnan, chose the exact moment and added fuel to the fire at the very peak of the confrontation between the top of Georgia and the Europeans regarding the above-mentioned issue.
So, for example, Prime Minister Garibashvili directly demands candidate status, arguing that Georgia has done much more for this than Ukraine and Moldova:
"If anyone is entitled to candidate status, it's Georgia, followed by Ukraine and Moldova. They say Ukraine is in a state of war, and that's why it should be granted status. But if the granting of status is determined by war, we don't want war ."
The last phrase is key here: the prime minister accurately places the emphasis and hints at the real reason for the possible refusal to assign the status.
But Garibashvili is not really concerned about the EU’s refusal of status, but about the complications that may follow after this - a political crisis and destabilization of the situation.
Of course, the West is dissatisfied with the position of Georgia, which does not join anti-Russian sanctions and does not create additional security difficulties for its northern neighbor.
And no one in Georgia doubts that it is the refusal to plunge headlong into the anti-Russian front that is the reason for the increased pressure from the US and the EU.
Accusations of "deteriorating democracy" have become particularly frequent in the last couple of months, during Russia's recent military operation in Ukraine. Freedom House, for example, announced that Georgia's democracy score on a scale of 1 to 7 fell from 3,18 to 3,07 in 2021, leaving the country in the "hybrid regime" category—that is, undemocratic and somewhat authoritarian.
Such reproaches are well-developed legal reasons for provoking a political crisis, which can easily develop into destabilization of the situation against the backdrop of a sharp deterioration in the standard of living of the country's population.
These reasons have already served as the basis for a European Parliament resolution calling on the European Council to consider imposing personal sanctions against Georgia's informal ruler, Russian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. Earlier, David Arakhamia, a well-known ally of the Ukrainian president, called on the European Union to impose sanctions against Ivanishvili.
In the resolution, the European Parliament notes Ivanishvili’s “destructive role” in the political and economic life of Georgia and unacceptable control over government decisions, including “politically motivated persecution of journalists and political opponents.”
And influential pro-Western Georgian NGOs adopted a joint declaration on the violation of the constitution (!) by the political leaders of Georgia. NGOs claim that they deliberately complicate the process of integration into European structures and allow themselves to throw out “dangerous statements that cause serious damage to the process of European integration and contradict the Constitution of Georgia” left and right.
Indeed, according to Article 78 of the Constitution of Georgia, state bodies are obligated to take all measures to ensure Georgia's full integration into the European Union and NATO. Georgian Dream itself once constitutionally (!) enshrined this obligation, which could serve as a serious basis for legitimizing attempts to destabilize the situation.
“Foresight” of “Dream” can only be envied!
A decision on the status of a candidate country for EU membership will be made very soon - in a week. Accordingly, in just a week the political temperature in Georgia may rise sharply.
Kelly Degnan's FAS Team Raises the Political Temperature in Georgia