Georgia on My Mind

New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast

Nino Evgenidze on the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its potential consequences for Georgia's future.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine seems likely to be one of those seminal events that will divide our future histories: BI and AI. That's obviously true for the combatants, but for many others as well.

Consider the small country of Georgia, with less than 4 million people, located at the eastern end of the Black Sea, and sharing an almost 900-kilometer border with Russia. Like Ukraine, it is another part of the former Soviet Union as well as a country that Russia wants to control again. But, liberated by the collapse of the Soviet Union, a significant majority of the Georgian people have demonstrated a strong desire to escape their history and geography and to pursue a future integrated into Europe. Unfortunately for them, neither Putin's Russia—which several years ago seized and still holds 20% of Georgian territory—nor the governing political party, Georgian Dream, share that aspiration.

What happens next? Another hotspot that could lead to another war? Or a country that has the chance to lever Western support for Ukraine to secure its own future as a Western democracy?

Nino Evgenidze, executive director of the Economic Policy Research Center in Tbilisi, Georgia has strong views on what should happen and what the West should do. Listen to her discussion with New Thinking for a New World host Alan Stoga and tell us whether you agree that Europe and the United States ought to use sanctions and other tools to make Georgia safe for democracy on our website https://tallbergfoundation.org/podcasts/georgia-on-my-mind/