– If Russia's plans work, this will be the end of free Georgia – said Christo Grozew, head of the investigative department of The Insider portal, previously associated with the Bellingcat project.
To mitigate the effect, Grozew believes, The Kremlin may “propose” a peaceful version of devotion Georgia its territories occupied since 2008 – Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
– This fits into the program of Georgian Dream, the ruling party in Georgia. Such a reconnection would be a Trojan horsebecause it will be related to the contract that will forever subordinate Georgia to Russia – said the Bulgarian in an interview for Delfi.
Georgia. Anxiety before the elections. They fear Russian interference
Hristo Grozev also said that correspondence between people from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, obtained by investigative journalists, proves that “in early 2024, Russian intelligence services did not believe in the victory of the Georgian Dream and proposed 'radical measures' to avoid 'second Armenia'“.
– While I haven't seen specific plans for these radical measures, I assume so Russia may try to apply the Belarusian scenario: reach an agreement with the ruling party and announce an incredibly large victory for this party – said the investigative journalist.
In his opinion, in response to such “brazen fraud” there will inevitably be mass protestswhich “will then be suppressed using unprecedented force, just as happened on Belarus in 2020″.
Parliamentary elections in Georgia. They can decide the future of the country
Georgia will hold parliamentary elections on Saturday According to commentators, they may be decisive for the future of the country. The increasingly anti-Western Georgian Dream party, which is fighting for a fourth term in office, is threatening that if the opposition wins, it will mean the country will be drawn into Russia's war against Ukraine i announces the delegalization of the main opposition party.
In turn, the opposition warns that the victory of the ruling party will irreversibly move the country towards pro-Russian pathsdashing Georgian hopes for integration with the EU and NATO. In addition to Georgian Dream, three large opposition blocs and the For Georgia party will fight for 150 seats in parliament.