Amid a meltdown of relations with the EU and the US, the ruling Georgian Dream is blaming the country’s former rulers for the 2008 war. The move is also seen as an attempt to eliminate the pro-European opposition.
Tbilisi claims that oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili was targeted for assassination by a cabal that also tried to kill Donald Trump and Slovakia’s Robert Fico. Georgia’s opposition says this is nonsense.
Georgia was granted EU candidate country in late 2023, but it needs to undertake a number of reforms before the actual negotiations would start. The European Council’s decision came following a complicated year, when the ruling Georgian Dream was faced with criticism from the West and domestic turmoil for what were perceived as pro-Russian and authoritarian policies. Veridica spoke with the co-founder of the Center for Strategic Analysis (GSAC), former Georgian Ambassador to Russia Valery Chechelashvili about how the events of 2023 could affect the future of Georgia, considering the fact that 2024 is an election year.