Elections in Georgia: Close finish and violence in vote on Europe’s future

Although Georgia was put forward as a candidate to join the European Union last December, the move is now frozen by the EU due to “backsliding on democracy” — including a Russian-style “foreign influence” law targeting groups receiving Western funding.

The USSR may have ceased to exist more than three decades ago, but Moscow still considers most of the old Soviet empire its own Russian backyard and sphere of influence.

He praised Georgian Dream’s pre-election promise of a “pragmatic” policy toward Russia, not to mention Brussels’ decision earlier this year to halt Georgia’s EU accession process.

Ivanishvili’s rhetoric is becoming increasingly anti-Western, indicating that the “Georgian Dream” could bring the country back into Russia’s orbit.

Georgians had a simple choice, the founder of the party said after the vote in Tbilisi: either the government that served them, or the opposition of “foreign agents who will only follow the orders of a foreign country.”

He has repeatedly spoken of a “party of global war” pushing the opposition to war in Ukraine, while Georgian Dream (GM) is a party of peace. For many voters, this message worked.

“The most important thing — for me, my family, my grandchildren — is peace, which I wish for all Georgians,” 55-year-old voter Tinatin Gvelesiani told the BBC at a polling station in Kojori, southwest of the capital. “Only the Georgian dream” will bring peace, she added.