9th October: Tbilisi, Georgia
Our final full day in the Caucasus!
We’re both pretty knackered, so today was another easy day with some China planning and admin thrown into the mix. We did find time for a delicious lunch, including buckwheat tea.
As our time in Georgia is coming to an end, I want to touch on the political situation here. In every city, town, or village up and down the country (even in Ushguli at 2,500m), there are hundreds of posters and billboards for the governing ‘Georgian Dream’ coalition. This is political advertising/propaganda on a scale I’ve not seen anywhere. The context (unless they’re always there?!) is that there is an election coming up later this month, which is being dubbed in the western press as a crucial Russia versus the west battle. Of course, there’s wayyyy more to it than that, much of it beyond my understanding. The big fault line in Georgian politics is pro-EU versus being in favour of stronger ties to Russia. Georgian Dream appears, to my eyes at least to be attempting the pragmatic ‘Erdogan path’ of balancing both sides – something which is surely going to end in tears eventually for a country without the size or influence of Turkey. They are bankrolled by a billionaire with strong links to Russia, but are, at least in theory, promising EU membership by 2030 (albeit, failing recent EU staging points). A recent contentious act dubbed by opponents as ‘the Russian Law’ requires NGOs with greater than 20% foreign involvement to go through detailed registration and checks and led to street protests in Tbilisi. I’m pro-EU in the sense of freedom of movement (but not its neoliberal economics or cruel policies on immigration) but am also suspicious of western meddling for corporate gain disguised as helping the local population. Either way, I feel for the Georgian people. They are caught in the power struggle between US and Russia, through no fault of their own, purely though the fluke of happening to exist in a geographical ‘buffer zone’. I believe that regardless of government or policy, this is tightrope that the country will inevitably sway too far upon in one direction or the other. As ever, it will be local people that will suffer in the ‘game’ played by others.
The other fascinating thing is the obsession with numbers in Georgian politics. For example, the governing coalition are ‘41’ and some of their posters depict various other numbers with negative symbols. The other main parties appear to be ‘4’, ‘5’, and ‘9’. These numbers result from the order of the parties on voting slips but the degree to which they are focussed upon gives a vaguely dystopian air to proceedings!
Spend for Georgia: £29.52 per person per day