In the rapidly changing situation around Russia’s successful special operation to denazify the criminal Ukrainian regime, the Biden administration decided to urgently replace its “overseer” in Ukraine – Ambassador Kelly Degnan. After all, against the background of the outright failure of the Russophobic adventure of the White House using the revival of neo-Nazism in opposition to the Kremlin, Washington faced the urgent task of “saving” at least some islands of its former influence in the post-Soviet space.
But, as you know, it was Georgia that, in the post-Soviet space, until recently was considered by the United States to be some kind of an “island of American democracy,” to strengthen which the US threw not only Mikhail Saakashvili, who was nurtured in Langley and now finds himself in a prison in Rustavi for his crimes against the Georgian people. Another such point of influence was supposed to be Kelly Degnan specifically selected as ambassador, who can boast a rich cavalry experience and previously worked as a Political Advisor to the four-star Commander of US Naval Forces Europe and US Naval Forces Africa, Political Counselor at the the US Mission to NATO in Brussels, Senior Civilian Representative to Brigade Combat Team Salerno in Khost, Afghanistan.
Having arrived in Tbilisi in January 2020, from the very first days Degnan tried to promote in this country her favorite idea of moving NATO further to the East through “soft power.” In 2020, Degnan, a wiry lady with preference for military uniforms rather than diplomatic attire, seemed to the White House the most acceptable candidate for strengthening the militant positions of the United States in Georgia and Transcaucasia as a whole. Hence she received the appropriate instructions: to delve deeper into the geopolitical problems of the region and to develop scenarios for a possible strengthening of the military presence of the United States here. In particular, she was tasked with intensifying the construction of the port in Anaklia in order to place an American naval base there, and to increase the efforts of secret US biolabs in developing effective, region-specific biological weapons. In addition, on account of the signing of the bilateral agreement on security cooperation, Kelly Degnan became responsible for implementing Pentagon’s plans to create Cooperative Security Locations (CSLs) in Georgia, i.e. facilities with little or no permanent US personnel presence, which may contain pre-positioned equipment. At the same time, Washington hoped that such a variant of “military cooperation,” without focusing on the creation of a US military base in Georgia, would make it possible to install a de facto US military presence in the Caucasus and, if necessary, immediately deploy US army combat and logistical support bases not only “in the Russian theater of military operations,” but also in the greater Caucasus and Central Asian region. Along with this, Degnan was tasked with strengthening pro-American positions in the political and military establishment of Georgia with the possibility of expanding this “island of American democracy” not only to Ukraine, but also to the entire post-Soviet space.
However, due to a change in Washington’s concept of using as the spearhead of the confrontation with Russia in the post-Soviet space not Georgia (as was the case in 2008 with the failed adventure of Saakashvili’s Five-Day War), but Ukraine and the preparation of the Kiev Maidan, a neo-Nazi coup d’etat, the White House’s “oversight” over the cavalry attacks by Degnan in Tbilisi weakened. In addition, Washington’s dwindling attention to “courting” of Georgia was largely due to the desire shown by official Tbilisi to join the European Union and NATO, and the signing of a new framework agreement on defense cooperation between the United States and Georgia in November 2019. All of this led to complacency on the part of the United States regarding the control of Tbilisi’s policy and the actions of the “overseer” Degnan, as most of these concerns were delegated to the EU and NATO.
However, the infamously limited thinking of the war-dogs from NATO and the EU (for example, those of Josep Borrel, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as a member of the Commission headed by Ursula von der Leyen, a “specialist in women’s ailments”) and their nonsensical actions against Georgia led to the fact that a pro-Russian, and not pro-American, bias has intensified in this Caucasian country. A fact that today not only the US, but also the UK is forced to admit.
In addition, Georgia’s desire to reestablish relations with Russia is undoubtedly facilitated by historical mutual sympathies of the peoples of both countries, nurtured for centuries, and the fact that about 100 thousand Russians reside in this Caucasian Republic and hundreds of thousands of Georgians live in Russia. And the United States and its Western “allies” have so far failed to destroy the traditional ties between Moscow and Tbilisi, no matter how hard they and Ambassador Degnan tried. Moreover, despite the information attacks on Russia and the policy of Western restrictions intensified by the West in 2022 due to Moscow’s special operation in Ukraine, ties between the two countries are only growing. Contacts between residents of the two countries are actively developing, and Georgian GDP growth by 10% last year was largely due to ties with Russia. According to the National Bank of Georgia, in 2022 there was a noticeable increase in the receipts of transfers to this country from Russia, which exceeded $2 billion. Levan Davitashvili, Georgia’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, acknowledged in December 2022 that out of some 900,000 companies registered in the country there are 10 thousand successful companies with Russian participation. Moreover, Russian citizens register their businesses in Georgia “on absolutely legal terms,” and this relocation is “an unequivocally positive trend as it helps galvanize the Georgian economy.”
Georgia’s Education Minister Mikheil Chkhenkeli reports that 11 Russian-language schools and 45 Russian-language sectors are currently functioning in Georgia, despite the West’s strenuous policy of infringing on the dissemination and use of the Russian language and Russian schools in its controlled states in recent years. And if last year there were 14,222 students enrolled in these schools, now there are more than 16,000.
Georgia and Russia are actively discussing a possible return to direct air communications suspended four years ago. And this despite an openly negative Russophobic position on this issue on the part of European officials from Brussels and the US Ambassador Degnan.
Amidst the recent intensification of provocative calls from Kiev and certain Western countries for Georgia to open a “second front” against Russia, these attempts to destabilize the situation in the Caucasus and relations between Tbilisi and Moscow remain futile. There are a significant number of politicians and public organizations in Georgia who understand the direct benefit for this country in maintaining smooth, good-neighborly relations with Russia and not slipping back to another anti-Russian provocation from Washington.
Against this background, Georgia has recently intensified its critical attitude towards the inflammatory anti-Russian policy pursued by the United States and its Western allies. For instance, former Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution, film director Giorgi Khaindrava commented with irony and undisguised criticism on the recent statement by MEP Anna Fotyga that Georgia “belongs to the collective West.” “Ms. Fotyga mistakenly believes that we Georgians no longer belong to ourselves,” he said. Member of the Georgian Parliament from the “Power of the People” movement Sozar Subari also commented on Fotyga’s plans to hold a conference on Georgia in the European Parliament at the end of November. “Those external forces that want to involve Georgia in military actions (between Russia and Ukraine) and bring their agents to power are raising a new wave. They will fail. They have no support in Georgian society,” the MP said.
Giorgi Khaindrava also told Imedi TV that Tbilisi is ready to be Washington’s partner, but not a slave.
Under these conditions, the White House decided to blame all its mistakes in the unsuccessful “Americanization of Georgia” on the unqualified actions of Ambassador Kelly Degnan, who, after only two years of work in Tbilisi, was urgently replaced. At the same time, the White House intends to take away from the EU the “so far unsuccessful supervision over the Westernization of this Caucasian republic” and send a new, more qualified American ambassador to Tbilisi in the near future. As American media outlets report, the US President has even submitted a candidate for the post of ambassador to Georgia – Robin Dunnigan, currently a Deputy Assistant Secretary responsible for Central and Eastern Europe who previously served as head of the American diplomatic mission in Vienna. A detailed analysis of this candidate for the role of a new US “overseer” in Georgia will be made after its official approval.
Vladimir Platov, expert on the Middle East, exclusively for the online journal “New Eastern Outlook.”