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Latest Articles about Georgia
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Georgia and the United States: De-Alignment Through Regime Change? (Part One)
The United States had strongly influenced Georgia’s politics during Mikheil Saakashvili’s presidency. This influence is waning since the regime change that has empowered Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. The October 2012 parliamentary elections have effected this still-incomplete regime change, pending a constitutional transition period until the... MORE
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Questions Linger on Voter Behavior in Georgia’s Elections
Georgia’s October 2012 parliamentary elections amounted to a plebiscite on the policies of Mikheil Saakashvili’s government. Voters responded by giving his rival Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream 85 parliamentary seats, against Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM), which gained 65 seats in the 150-seat chamber. The votes... MORE
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Electoral Democracy: Path to State Capture in Georgia
In October 2012, Georgia held the freest parliamentary elections in the country’s two decades of experience with competitive multi-party politics. Also for the first time, the opposition defeated the government, in a contest on a “level playing field.” This, however, was not simply a competition... MORE
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‘Cultural Ties’: Russia’s New War Tool with Georgia
On March 4, renowned Georgian folk dance and music ensemble Erisioni departed to Russia for a tour, culminating in a series of grandiose concerts at the Kremlin on March 9–10 (Imedi TV, March 4). Two other Georgian folk ensembles, Rustavi and National Ballet Sukhishvilebi, as... MORE
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Saakashvili’s Visit to Baku Ignites Political Debates
At the end of February 2013, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili paid an official visit to Baku. During the visit, Saakashvili met with his Azerbaijani counterpart, President Ilham Aliyev, and discussed several issues of mutual interests. As analysts suggested, the visit was supposed to calm down... MORE
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Georgia Adrift, US AWOL After Regime Change
Georgia’s parliamentary elections on October 1, 2012, have ushered in, not merely a rotation of government, but a change of regime, from President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) to billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream. The latter won an indisputable mandate in the narrow terms... MORE
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Amid Conflict with Bidzina Ivanishvili, Mikheil Saakashvili Returns to His Political Roots
The political situation in Georgia in the past several weeks has rapidly deteriorated. Instead of co-habitation, the president and the prime minister of the country have reverted to playing a zero-sum game that may end in one of the sides completely losing and disappearing from... MORE
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Georgia Once Again Finds Russia To Be a Bad Negotiating Partner
On February 4, a Georgian delegation led by Levan Davitashvili, the head of the National Wine Agency at the Ministry of Agriculture, held another round of trade negotiations with Gennady Onishchenko, the head of the Russian state consumer agency Rospotrebnadzor. After the negotiations, the officials... MORE
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Prime Minister Ivanishvili’s Foreign Policy Outline Encounters Strong Resistance from the Opposition
Widely considered the closest ally of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, former Georgian Ambassador to the United States and current Ambassador to the United Kingdom Tedo Japaridze has put forward a draft agreement aimed at bringing together the two largest parliamentary factions—Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream (GD) and... MORE
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Ivanishvili’s Government Creates a Scapegoat, While Finding It Hard to Deliver on Its Promises
On February 15, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) party, as part of a power-sharing agreement, confirmed its proposal to the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) coalition that a large part of the new constitutional provisions should go into effect now, instead of in... MORE