Georgia

Georgia occupies the land bridge between Europe and Asia where great powers have collided for millennia—and in 2025, the collision continues. The 2003 Rose Revolution made Georgia a symbol of post-Soviet democratization; the 2008 Russian invasion and 2024 pro-Russian pivot demonstrate how small states get crushed between empires.

Georgian kingdoms emerged by the 4th century BCE, developing a distinct language and Orthodox Christian culture. The Golden Age under Queen Tamar (1184-1213) saw Georgia control territory from the Black Sea to the Caspian. But Mongol invasions shattered this power; subsequent centuries brought Ottoman and Persian competition for the Caucasus. In 1801, the Russian Empire annexed eastern Georgia, eventually absorbing the whole region. Russification and resistance alternated until 1918, when the collapse of the Russian Empire enabled brief independence.

Soviet reconquest in 1921 incorporated Georgia into the USSR. Stalin, a Georgian, exported the region's brutal political methods to the entire Soviet system. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, Georgia declared independence but immediately faced civil war and separatist conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia—Russian-backed regions that functioned as levers of pressure.

The 2003 Rose Revolution transformed Georgia's trajectory. When President Eduard Shevardnadze rigged parliamentary elections, protesters led by Mikheil Saakashvili stormed parliament carrying roses. Saakashvili won the subsequent presidential election with 96% and launched sweeping reforms: anti-corruption drives, police restructuring, deregulation that made Georgia the World Bank's "number one reformer" for 2006-2011. The economy grew nearly 7% annually despite a Russian energy blockade.

The 2008 war ended the reform dream's optimistic phase. Russian troops invaded following fighting in South Ossetia, advancing within 25 miles of Tbilisi before a French-brokered ceasefire. Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states (recognized by almost no one else), permanently amputating 20% of Georgian territory. NATO membership—Georgia's stated goal—became unattainable; Russia had demonstrated it would fight to prevent it.

The 2012 elections brought Georgian Dream to power, founded by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili—who made his fortune in Russia during the 1990s. Power changed hands peacefully for the first time in Georgian history, but the trajectory shifted. Saakashvili faced criminal charges and eventually imprisonment; relations with Russia warmed; EU integration stalled. In 2023, the government attempted to pass a "foreign agents" law modeled on Russian legislation; massive youth protests blocked it. The law passed in 2024.

By 2025, Georgia faces its most significant crisis since the Rose Revolution. Mass protests reject democratic backsliding and pro-Russian alignment. The EU suspended Georgia's membership candidacy. The government increasingly resembles the post-Soviet authoritarianism Saakashvili's revolution sought to escape. Russia's grip tightens; the young people who flooded Tbilisi's streets demanding European integration see their country sliding toward Moscow's orbit.

Through 2026, Georgia tests whether small states can maintain independent trajectories when surrounded by powers that refuse to let them choose. The Rose Revolution's hopes haven't died, but the forces arrayed against them—Russia's military presence in occupied territories, a government with Russian business ties, an EU too preoccupied to fight for Georgian democracy—make revival uncertain.