"Fact" daily writes:
After the parliamentary elections, it became clear that Georgia will continue the foreign policy it was leading before. Against this background, there are constant complaints from the West.
One of the manifestations of that dissatisfaction is the joint statement of French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk regarding the current political situation in Georgia.
In that statement, first of all, it was mentioned about the demand to change the course conducted by Georgia. And what course are we talking about? Perhaps, if the brackets are opened, it will turn out that they are dissatisfied with the West, that Georgia does not dance to their duduk.
In other words, they expected from the West that Georgia should become their puppet and take such steps that are only beneficial to them, even if it does not derive from Georgian interests.
For example, the Georgian side has claimed more than once that they are being pushed by the West to enter into a confrontation with Russia and open a second front. The problem is that Western countries are more interested in harming Russia in some way than what will happen to Georgia in the end.
The situation of thousands of people dying or the country being turned into ruins is subordinated to Western interests.
In other words, the West wants Georgia to throw itself on fire, and the Western partners to warm their hands on that fire. Although, there is nothing unusual here. pulling chestnuts out of the fire by someone else's hand is the practice of the West. That is what they are doing now in Ukraine.
At one time there were demands from the West that Georgia should provide military aid to Ukraine. And from Tbilisi, they also responded, why should they rush to help Kiev, when during the Russo-Georgian war, Ukraine was silently watching what was happening with Georgia.
But the most surprising thing is that the Western officials specifically accuse the Georgian authorities of having a pro-Russian or Russian orientation, which is at least nonsense. The authorities of Georgia have stated more than once that they see the future of their country in the European community, but not as a puppet, but as an independent actor.
They also show the Georgian public that they are going after the independence, sovereignty, autonomy and balanced policy of their country. At the same time, the team led by the "Georgian Dream" party strives to maintain the positive dynamics of relations with Russia.
The problem is not only that Georgia and Russia are bordering countries, but also that Russia is very important for Georgia economically. It is no coincidence that Russia is one of Georgia's main trade partners.
According to last year's data, 20.9% of Georgia's trade turnover was with the EU, 13.8% with Turkey, and 11.1% with Russia. It is especially noteworthy that Georgia's trade turnover with Russia shows increasing tendencies. In January-September 2024, it already amounted to 1 billion 313 million dollars. Only the export of wine from Georgia to Russia increased by 14 percent.
As a result, Russia accounts for 68.5 percent of Georgian wine exports. Under these conditions, Georgia cannot not have a balanced policy, which is what the Georgian authorities are pursuing without being completely dependent on any geopolitical center.
Macron, Scholz and Tusk's statement also mentioned the need to make reforms in Georgia and contradictions with European values and principles. And what are those European values, double standards?
When the states are completely puppets of the West and conduct an anti-Russian policy, then do they correspond to European values?
And if they suddenly conduct a balanced policy, do they not correspond to European values? This is how European values are interpreted with such double logic.
And within this framework, certain restrictions may even be applied to Georgia. And, for example, Azerbaijan with a khanate system of government, which has shown that it does not care about human rights and European values, positions itself as an energy partner of the EU.
Most of the European countries simply care for Aliyev's regime. There was no case that the leaders of the European countries condemned the actions of Azerbaijan with the same zeal when genocidal crimes were committed against the people of Artsakh.
In this case, they were already blinded by the Azerbaijani gas. This is what the European values and principles testify to.
ARSEN SAHAKYAN
