From that link 3 hour ago - 1 hour ago Patrick Kingsley
Georgia, another of Russia’s neighbors, faces a strategic dilemma.
[four other photos inside]
KHURVALETI, Georgia — Along Russia’s borders, in post-Soviet countries like Georgia that remain caught between Russian and Western influence, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has presented governments with a dilemma.
Apart from Belarus, none have backed the Russian offensive. But nor have they strongly opposed it — fearful of upsetting a dominant neighbor. Georgia, a small, mountainous country of 3.7 million people at the southeastern extreme of the European continent, is perhaps running the narrowest gauntlet.
Russia invaded parts of Georgia 14 years ago, and Russian troops still protect South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two secessionist regions that broke away from Georgia during the 1990s and then expanded in 2008. That has put Russia in de facto control of roughly a fifth of Georgian territory.
To the Georgian government, this precarious dynamic makes it unwise to speak out too strongly against Russia, lest Russia turn on Georgia next.
“We live next to a volcano,” said Giorgi Khelashvili, a lawmaker for Georgia’s ruling party, Georgian Dream. “The volcano just erupted, and it just happens that the lava is currently flowing down the other side of the mountain.”
But this cautious approach has put the Georgian government at odds with most of its population — creating a far more pointed clash between majority opinion on Ukraine and government policy than in most other European countries.
Tina Marghishvili, a farmer, once lived in South Ossetia before Russia took control of it. “I watch the Ukraine news, I remember 2008, and it makes me cry,” said Ms. Marghishvili, 57, who now lives in a camp for Georgians displaced by that 2008 war. “Georgia should be sanctioning Russia, blockading them, boycotting their exports.”
And for Ms. Marghishvili, the big mystery is: Why hasn’t the Georgian government already done that?
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