After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia has gone through a series of disasters, including a civil war, military conflicts in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali. Georgian raised against Georgian because of the \u2018true values\u2019, believing that there are \u2018right\u2019 and \u2018wrong\u2019 Georgians. To be a true Georgian, you should have had a respective bloodline, a knowledge of local language and an identity of Orthodox Christian. This war of \u2018morally superior\u2019 Georgians against \u2018faithless\u2019 has ended up cracking the society and plunged the state into chaos. Decades were spent to put together everything that had been left. During Mikhail Saakashvili\u2019s government, political elites managed to finally set up basic rules, widely supported and shared by a majority of Georgian society. The most important were to restrain aggressive nationalistic attitudes and ensure non-violent processes, not letting history to be repeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, these basic agreements are currently actively shattered by various Western-financed non-government activists and political opposition. Furthermore, it is obvious that politically motivated members of Ukrainian elites as well as some of the American politicians and EU parliament members are being dragged into this, too. It seems the conflict in Ukraine made some of the Western external actors disapprove of the pragmatic policy of the ruling Georgian Dream toward Russia, hoping that regime change will bring more patriotic sentiments and increase anti-Russian rhetoric in Tbilisi. But this may lead to catastrophic results. Georgia shelters Turks, Azeris, Armenians, Ukrainians, Russians and other nationalities who wage wars abroad. The balance is kept by local Georgians for everyone\u2019s sake. Thus, breaking crucial agreements between the same Georgians may destroy the balance, turning the state into yet another battleground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Broken Seals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There were anti-Russian statements in Georgia for a long time. But everything was in the scopes of the general agreement and in accordance with the real Western values. These seals were broken in March, during the protests against the \u201cForeign Agent Bill\u201d, by some called the \u201cRussian law\u201d, introduced by Georgian Dream. Protest is an inherent part of Georgian political culture but the last one turned into a direct attempt of seizure of the parliament building, police officers attacked, burned alive by protesters and, the worst, U.S. ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan openly cherishing the protesters. Furthermore, EU parliament member Viola von Cramon-Taubadel calling on these small violent groups to make another \u201cEuromaidan\u201d that ended the government of Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine (2013-14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Georgia has never experienced such an open intrusion into domestic affairs and blatant violation of both, diplomatic protocol as well as misbehavior from the Western actors. Simply saying, the law that aimed at controlling money flow from all over the world was considered by the Western allies as a possible controlling mechanism of \u201cwho is paid and for what\u201d that could have diminished the Western opportunity to directly finance various anti-governmental movements, decrease influence on internal political processes. Thus, it has been perceived as a threat, even though the U.S. has an exact same law, and U.S. ambassador \u201cgave green light\u201d to the violence. It won\u2019t be an exaggeration to say that the broader Georgian society was shocked by such behavior. The protesters, on the one hand, and the Western allies, on the other hand, simply broke the rules that the same Georgian society hardly achieved and was desperately protecting. EU ambassador to Georgia Pawel Herczynski was even forced to outline that the EU was not pushing Georgia to violence, keeping in the mind the civil war in the 90s. But the seals are already broken. Now, it is obvious that if in its interest, some part of the West may support radical groups, even an unlawful overthrow of the government and anti-Russian, Russophobe manifestations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russophobia among \u201cpro-Western\u201d Elites<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And while regular Ukrainians and Georgians were and are free to express what can be assessed as aggressive Russophobe, anti-Russian statements, it is astonishing how widely shared is the same among the elite part of Georgia\u2019s non-governmental sector, elite part of the local civil society. Those who are financed by Western agencies and governments to defend human rights, tolerance and other democratic values, are actively and openly using such terms as \u201cRussian pigs\u201d (geo. \u201e\u10e6\u10e0\u10e3\u10e1\u10d4\u10d1\u10d8\u201c \u2013 pig and Russians) and other derogatory words on the media, Facebook and other social platforms. These people do not hide their disdain toward every single Russian visiting Georgia. Worse luck, representatives of local European and U.S. embassies are aware of the situation and instead of restraining such questionable behavior, are silent, indirectly supporting it. Even worse is the situation on the so-called pro-Western Georgian oppositional channels. These media sources call on \u201cGeorgian patriots\u201d, every single day, to raise against the ruling \u201cRussian Dream\u201d, forcefully overthrow the democratically elected government and expel \u201cRussian pigs\u201d from the country. Those who don\u2019t share the approach are called \u201ctraitors\u201d and \u201cagents of the Kremlin\u201d. And some of the Western allies of Georgia are pretty keen to call this media a \u201cbeacon of democracy\u201d and a \u201csupporter of the Western values\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a consequence, all of these led to a formation of what can be called the Georgian \u201cpro-Western\u201d petty nationalism. Aggressive violent, arguably, pro-Western, pro-Ukrainian, Russophobe (anti-Russian), anti-tolerant movement, used by political opposition, some local civil society organizations and the Western external actors to press Georgian government, threaten it with \u201cconsequences\u201d, persecute Russians in the state and attack those Georgians who disagree with the appraisal of the nationalistic attitudes. Some local experts, scholars and other public figures are being verbally insulted, physically assaulted at universities and other public spaces on a regular basis by the same groups of people, financed by the same Western agencies. Unfortunately, with no respective reaction from the West and the state. It became highly dangerous to oppose Georgian \u201cpro-Western\u201d petty nationalism. Regretfully, this warped worldview is actively thought during the so-called \u201cpro-Western\u201d trainings among local youth, especially in Tbilisi, hoping that they will become a \u2018mainstay\u2019 for future rivalry between \u2018right\u2019 Georgian patriots, supporters of the West, Ukraine and Russia-haters, and the \u2018faithless\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To summarize, nationalistic manifestations and violence became answers to political crisis in the country, all sides actively using it to somehow achieve the goals. And if not stopped, Georgia may fall into yet another confrontation between \u2018morally superior\u2019 Georgians against \u2018faithless\u2019, leading the country to a collapse. And what will restrain Turks, Azeris, Armenians, Ukrainians, Russians and other nationalities from conducting their own \u2018petty vendettas\u2019 for the sake of their own unbridled nationalism?! Nothing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n