Split between Ukraine and Georgia has become larger. When will we be friends again?

The split in relations between Ukraine and Georgia is becoming wider and deeper.

Another sign of this unfortunate phenomenon was the statement of the Georgian government.

Tbilisi, recalling Georgia’s solidarity with Ukraine and reproaching our country for “actions contrary to the spirit of friendship”, for the sake of “normalization of relations”, demanded that the political leaders of Kyiv to extradite “criminals currently occupying high positions in the Ukrainian government.” In particular, we are talking about the adviser to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Zurab Adeishvili and the adviser to the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate Giorgi Lortkipanidze. (For some reason, the latter is named the deputy head of a non-existent intelligence service in Ukraine, namely the Counterintelligence Service...)

During the time of President Mikheil Saakashvili, Zurab Adeishvili was the Prosecutor General and Minister of Justice of Georgia, and Giorgi Lortkipanidze was the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia. After the Georgian Dream public movement came to power, they were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment in their homeland. Lortkipanidze is accused of helping Saakashvili illegally enter Georgia in 2021. Adeishvili was convicted in absentia on several charges, including in the bankruptcy case of the Kartu bank, owned by the founder of the Georgian Dream public movement, the gray cardinal of Georgian politics, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

The reason for the demarche of the Georgian side was the presence of Adeishvili as part of the Ukrainian delegation at parliamentary hearings in Germany, as well as his trip to Brussels. As a result, the head of the Georgian Foreign Ministry, Ilia Darchiashvili, protested to the ambassadors of the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union in connection with Adeishvili’s visit to Europe as part of the Ukrainian delegation. And Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze called the visit of the adviser to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General to Brussels “an attack on European values.”

Kyiv was quick to respond.

The head of the parliamentary faction of the pro-presidential Servant of the People party, David Arakhamia, wrote on the Telegram channel that “the pro-Kremlin government of Georgia is putting forward some demands for the extradition of our citizens to “normalize relations.” He added that for a real normalization of relations, Georgia must release the Ukrainian citizen Saakashvili from prison and return him, stop direct flights with the Russian Federation and stop helping Russia evade sanctions.

“The statements of the Georgian government are irritating and do not strengthen bilateral relations. And although this is not yet a chasm in our relations, the distance between the countries is expanding. And our peoples, who have sympathy for each other, do not want this,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, co-chair of the group on interparliamentary relations with Georgia, in a commentary to ZN.UA. The deputy also noted that for Tbilisi, the participation of former Georgian officials in Ukrainian delegations is a real reason for public discontent, which has deeper reasons.

In many ways, the deterioration of Ukrainian-Georgian relations is happening because, in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war, political leaders in Kyiv see the world in black and white, rejecting shades of gray and nuances, while in Tbilisi politicians use a kaleidoscope. The Georgian government is trying to balance between Kyiv and Moscow, the West and Russia. Georgia's position is influenced by both fear of a new Russian invasion and suspicions that Ukraine is flirting with the Georgian opposition with long-term intent.

“The Georgian authorities are distrustful of Ukraine because they believe that Kyiv supports the opposition. This is actually not true. It’s just that former officials from Saakashvili’s presidency ended up in Ukraine, where they occupied high government positions. But seeing this, political leaders in Tbilisi suspect Kyiv of trying to displace the current Georgian government,” Ihor Semivolos, executive director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said in a commentary to ZN.UA.

The Georgian authorities are reacting nervously also because parliamentary elections will be held in Georgia this fall. “It is possible that statements demanding the extradition of Zurab Adeishvili and Giorgi Lortkipanidze are also a consequence of the electoral strategy. The Ukrainian factor has long become an element of Georgia’s domestic policy, which in turn has a negative impact on bilateral relations,” noted Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.

The Georgian Dream public movement has good prospects of winning parliamentary elections in 2024. This is facilitated by both economic growth in the country and the disunity of the opposition. Representatives of the public movement “The Georgian opposition can come to power only against the backdrop of Ukraine’s successes at the front,” Ihor Semivolos predicted in a conversation with ZN.UA. And the deterioration of Ukrainian-Georgian relations in Tbilisi will be explained by the Saakashvili factor, the personality of Arakhamia, and Ukraine’s attempts to drag Georgia into a war with Russia.

However, Kyiv’s policy towards Tbilisi is impulsive and emotional, and often does not take into account the specifics of the Georgian situation. The refusal of the Georgian government to impose sanctions against Russia led to the recall of the Ukrainian ambassador from Georgia in the spring of 2022, although such a measure was not taken in relation to other countries. And since the Georgian authorities did not intend to release or send for treatment the imprisoned Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili, according to the decision of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, the Georgian ambassador was forced to leave Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Georgian government is afraid of a repeat of the Russian-Georgian war of 2008 and is trying to sit on two chairs, that is, it has a  desire to have everything at once. Tbilisi does not forget about the threat voiced by Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitri Medvedev: “There is again talk about the possible accession of Georgia to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). We do not need a repeat of the story that happened in Georgia in 2008. We remain ready to solve problems at the negotiating table in the tradition of the United Nation Charter. But if our concerns become real, we will not hesitate to act.”

Therefore, although the Georgian government supports Kyiv in voting in international organizations and provides humanitarian assistance, Tbilisi nevertheless gives rise to accusations of pro-Russian politics. After all, Georgia does not join the sanctions against Russia, and its government has agreed to restore direct flights. New Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze repeated that Georgia will continue a pragmatic policy in relations with the Russian Federation, “the goal of which is to maintain peace in our country.”

Although political leaders in Tbilisi have declared their intention to achieve membership in the European Union, Georgia is economically dependent on Russia. The “pragmatic policy” of the Georgian authorities led to the fact that trade turnover between the countries not only increased: Tbilisi began to be accused of condoning the import into the Russian Federation of products that are under Western sanctions. The Georgian government denies such accusations. Last year, it even banned the re-export to Russia of cars imported from the United States of America and the European Union.

The fact that Georgia has received candidate status for joining the European Union forces the Georgian government to adhere to certain rules in trade with Russia. However, even rapprochement with the European Union does not mean rapprochement with Ukraine: it is much easier for the current Georgian authorities to find mutual understanding with Viktor Orbán’s Hungary or Robert Fico’s Slovakia. As Ihor Semivolos notes, “the Georgian government will continue to balance, taking into account the position of its population, which is favorably disposed towards Ukraine, and its policy towards the European Union, the United States of America and the Russian Federation.”

Thus, the deterioration in relations between Kyiv and Tbilisi will last until the power changes in Georgia and until Russia is defeated in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Read this article in Ukrainian and russian.