Supporting or Destroying Democracy in Georgia & Moldova?

Ian Proud, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen

I had a conversation with Ian Proud and Alexander Mercouris about the elections in Georgia and Moldova. Ian Proud was a member of the British Diplomatic Service between 1999 and 2023, which included serving at the British Embassy in Moscow between 2014 and 2019.

In Georgia, the EU has challenged the election outcome with threats of sanctions and demands for holding new elections. While the Georgian government wants to integrate with the EU, it has warned against being used as an instrument against Georgia. The Georgian Prime Minister has even accused the US and EU of attempting to pursue regime change to use Georgia as a second front against Russia. The US and EU have constructed a simplified binary representation of the election in Georgia as a struggle between democracy and tyranny as the Georgian government is accused of being puppets of Putin, and the political opposition believes in the “European dream”. Framing Georgian politics as a battle of good versus evil also legitimises interference in Georgia’s domestic affairs as government-funded “NGOs” are weaponised against the Georgian government.

In Moldova, the EU celebrated the election outcome as a victory of democracy as the pro-West / anti-Russian president won the election. In reality, Sandu did not win the majority of votes within Moldova and relied on votes from Moldovans living abroad. More precisely, she relied on the votes from Moldovans living in the EU. Most Moldovans living abroad reside in Russia, yet only two polling stations were opened in Russia. In contrast, 60 polling stations were opened in Italy. Her share of votes within Moldova would also have been even smaller if voters within Transnistria were obstructed from voting.

The elections in Georgia and Moldova demonstrate that democracy and liberal principles have been corrupted and demoted to instruments of geopolitics. When an inclusive pan-European security architecture was abandoned in favour of NATO expansion and the subsequent return to zero-sum bloc politics, a new Cold War was unleashed in terms of where to draw the new dividing lines of Europe. Georgia and Moldova are thus following Ukraine's path.