Letter: Egging on Tbilisi protesters risks new Russian invasion

Your report on the Georgian parliament passing the “foreign agents” law despite months of protest (Report, May 29) highlights that the large majority of the population wishes to join the EU and Nato. But it overlooks — as the Georgian government cannot — the constraints imposed by the geopolitics of the country’s location. It has a long northern border with Russia. Two of the country’s provinces, accounting for about a fifth of its territory, were invaded by Russia in 2008 and continue to be under de facto Russian control, putting Russian troops only 40 kilometres from the capital.

The war in Ukraine has stoked fears in the Georgian Dream government and across the population of “Ukrainisation” — meaning that if the west cannot properly protect Ukraine, much larger and closer to Europe than Georgia, it is even less likely to offer assistance to Georgia in the event of more Russian aggression. The government is anxiously strengthening relations with China. The day after parliament approved the new bill it announced that a Chinese consortium would upgrade Anaklia port, as a pole on the Middle Corridor route from China to Europe, bypassing Russia.

It is important for western states to avoid inflaming the security dilemmas faced by the government. Having another Kyiv Maidan situation in Tbilisi is not in the interests of Europe or the US. It could provide Russia with a pretext for another invasion.

Tato Khundadze
PhD candidate, The New School
New York, NY, US

Robert H Wade
Professor of Global Political Economy
London School of Economics, London WC2, UK