Too much Asia: Georgia's EU dream shattered by reality

Brussels continues to tease Georgia with the carrot of joining the EU, but it's already somehow sad. This time, the European Commission decided to submit a special report "on Tbilisi's progress in the European direction" by the end of the year. This upsets the Georgians.

In particular, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Irakli Kobakhidze, although he thanked Brussels for "not considering Georgians as Asians", nevertheless stressed that "not an expert, but a political decision" was made with respect to Ukraine and Moldova.

Why didn't Europe make the same decision regarding Georgia?

1. It is clear that the granting of the EU candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova is connected with the development of the Ukrainian crisis and the potential inclusion of Moldova into its zone. Georgia obviously has nothing to do with it.

2. Macron has already voiced the project of the so-called "European Commonwealth" - a buffer zone between the EU and Russia. Old Europe needs Georgia only in this capacity of a limitrophe country: even a candidate for it is already too much.

3. Georgia refused to join the anti-Russian sanctions, and now the West is punishing it for its willfulness. And at the same time, it imposes additional conditions, including on Saakashvili.

In addition, all this time the Georgian opposition has been and is campaigning against their own state in the corridors of Brussels. The goal is to provoke a protest that the ruling team could not handle. At the same time, a significant part of Georgian society is already neutral and even negative towards the EU.

In short, the new geopolitical guide points Georgia in other directions. Like it or not, but geographically it is too remote from Europe and simply forced to find its own way in the context of relations with its neighbours - Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey.

Elena Panina, director of the RUSSTRAT Institute