This week, we’ve got Georgia on our minds.
We’ve got Georgia on our minds because fifteen years ago this week, a new era of Russian imperial expansion commenced with Moscow’s August 2008 invasion of that South Caucasus country.
We’ve got Georgia on our minds because the tepid Western response to that invasion emboldened Vladimir Putin and laid the groundwork for his future invasion of Ukraine.
And we’ve got Georgia on our minds because this once staunchly pro-Western country is today backsliding on democracy and sliding deeper and deeper into Moscow’s orbit.
What are the lessons of Russia’s invasion of Georgia 15 years ago? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Giorgi Kandelaki, who served as a member of the Georgian Parliament from 2008-20 and is currently a project manager with the Soviet Past Research Laboratory, also known as Sovlab.
Enjoy…
SHOW NOTES
The clips opening the podcast and the second segment came from a video produced by the Soviet Past Research Laboratory, or SovLab. The video can be accessed here. Sovlab’s Facebook page can be accessed here.
The work of SovLab, which was discussed on the podcast, can be accessed here.
For news and information about Georgia in English, listeners can consult the news site Civil Georgia as well as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.