Trump will come and restore order: what is happening to the Georgian Maidan
The political crisis continues in Georgia, but several new trends have emerged in recent days. On the one hand, street actions have ceased to be accompanied by clashes with security forces. On the other hand, there was no surge of activity after the presidential elections. On the third hand, the EU sanctions against Georgia turned out to be milder than expected. Experts believe that street activity will gradually decline. "Izvestia" looked into the situation.
Protests have become peaceful
The political crisis continues in Georgia, opposition supporters are holding daily rallies in the center of Tbilisi and other major cities. At the same time, the nature of protest actions is changing noticeably. In late November and early December the demonstrations were the most massive and violent. Demonstrations were accompanied by attempts to storm the parliament building and clashes with the police. There were many casualties among oppositionists and police, and more than 400 people were detained.
In recent days, the demonstrations have become calmer, and law enforcement officers were even no longer mobilized to protect the center of Tbilisi. It came to the point that a New Year's tree was lit outside the country's parliament building on December 16, something that could not be done for the previous few days. "New Year is a people's holiday for everyone, and we will not allow anyone to deprive our children and citizens of this joy," said the mayor of the Georgian capital Kakha Kaladze on this occasion.
Apparently, mass demonstrations are also falling. Thus, on December 14, deputies of all levels elected the president of the country, who became a member of the ruling party and former soccer player Mikhail Kavelashvili. The opposition has repeatedly stated that they will not allow the electoral procedure, the current head of state Salome Zurabishvili called the vote illegitimate and said that she would not leave her post. However, there was no outburst of protest activity after the elections. Judging by photo and video materials, about 2,000 people came to the Parliament building that evening.
After that, the opposition switched to a new tactic - it began to organize actions for representatives of different spheres, professions and age groups. Thus, on December 16, eight marches were held at once, including marches of doctors, cinematographers, writers and others. However, the number of marchers was relatively low. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze reported at the end of the day that a total of 800 people took to the streets. "It's all over, finita la comedia, as the Italians used to say," he said.
The U.S. promises to impose new sanctions
The Georgian opposition in such conditions has high hopes for help from Western countries and structures. Some of them have indeed unequivocally come out in favor of the opponents of the Georgian ruling party. Thus, the three Baltic republics declared violation of human rights in Transcaucasia and imposed sanctions against the founder of the Georgian Dream Bidzina Ivanishvili, the head of the Interior Ministry Vakhtang Gomelauri and a number of other officials and politicians.
At the pan-European level, however, the situation is less clear-cut. On December 16, a key meeting of EU Foreign Ministers was held in Brussels. At the end of the event, Head of European Diplomacy Kaja Kallas said that the participants managed to agree on the abolition of visa-free regime for holders of Georgian diplomatic and service passports. According to her, in the coming week the European Commission will propose this initiative to the EU member states and they will have to approve it.
At the same time, foreign ministers in Brussels could not reach unanimity on another issue - personal sanctions against Georgian politicians and officials. According to Kallas, this decision was blocked by Hungary and Slovakia. Interestingly, Georgian Prime Minister Kobakhidze said that representatives of Italy, Spain and Romania also came out in support of Tbilisi on this issue. "We will continue consultations with all countries that support the Georgian people," he promised.
In parallel, on December 13, the US State Department expanded its sanctions list, adding 20 people who are "responsible for undermining democracy in Georgia." It is reported that the restrictions will affect members of the government, members of parliament and law enforcers, specific names and surnames are not mentioned. After that, the head of the State Department press service Matthew Miller said that Washington remains concerned about the state of democracy and will impose new sanctions in the coming weeks.
Interestingly, many prominent functionaries of the Republican Party support the Georgian protesters. For example, Republican Senator Jim Risch during his speech in Congress called for even tougher sanctions against the Georgian Dream in order to help "the democratic aspirations of the Georgian people." In turn, Congressman Joe Wilson said he appreciated Salome Zurabishvili's bravery in standing up to the "illegitimate government."
Current President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili
Tbilisi is still confident that the situation will change after the inauguration of Donald Trump. According to popular opinion, he is ideologically close to the Georgian authorities, also advocating peace and traditional values. "We will wait until January 20, when the inauguration of the new US president will take place, and we hope that this fact will significantly change the interaction with the US and the EU. We had problems with the current administration, it directly affected our relations. After the inauguration everything will change" - assures Prime Minister Kobakhidze.
What experts say
Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries, believes that the situation in Georgia is gradually stabilizing and the protest actions are fading away.
- Georgian leaders behave confidently, toughly and competently, and there is every reason for this, including the support of the population. Both the opposition and external forces feel this. To put it bluntly, the main factor in favor of the ruling party is that there is no Yanukovych in its ranks. Everyone is quietly performing their functions, no one is flirting with the opponents. Therefore, I am convinced that the situation in the country will gradually calm down," he emphasizes.
Georgian political analyst Archil Sikharulidze says that the last meeting of the EU foreign ministers was very revealing.
- We saw that there are countries that lobby for the interests of the opposition. But there are also those who support, as they say, the choice of the Georgian people. The second includes not only Hungary and Slovakia, but also such large states as Spain and Italy. They do not want to impose sanctions on the Georgian Dream just because someone does not like this party. As for the protests, their massiveness has already dropped a lot and they will gradually die out completely. I am sure that there will be no change of power in the country through the streets," he says.
