Al Jazeera Net correspondents
Published On 21/11/2025
|
Last update: 16:15 (Mecca time)
Moscow – In a decision that would increase tension in relations with the European Union and deepen the crisis with the opposition, the authorities in Georgia announced that they had decided not to allow its citizens to vote abroad.
The Speaker of the Georgian Parliament said Shalva PapuashphiliaThe decision came in anticipation of voters being exposed to external pressure, and he explained that “the 2024 parliamentary elections showed the severity of the media and political pressure on them, and therefore Georgian citizens will have to return to the country and cast their votes at their place of registration.”
According to him, Georgians living abroad may receive misleading information about current events in the country. But he pointed out that the voting ban complies with international standards, and is in effect in countries such as Armenia, Ireland and Malta.
Duality
Tbilisi (the Georgian capital) is being accused of launching a series of attacks on European Union interests in the country, as happened when the government stopped the so-called Anti-Corruption Office, which was established on the recommendation of the Union, from working in Georgia, and transferred its duties to the Audit Bureau.
The crisis between the two parties began to worsen following the parliamentary elections held last year, which were followed by the decision of the new authorities in Tbilisi, represented by the “Georgian Dream” party, to suspend the country’s accession to the European Union.
The former Soviet republic located in the South Caucasus had obtained candidate status to join the European Union in December 2023, but Brussels this month accused Georgia of “dangerous democratic regression” and said it now considered it a candidate country “in name only.”
Georgia finds itself in a complex geopolitical situation between Moscow and the West. On the one hand, it neighbors Russia and opposes joining Western sanctions against it. On the other hand, it seeks to integrate into European structures such as the European Union and NATO, creating a “dual-direction” policy, as it seeks to balance these two aspects by maintaining relations with Moscow, while at the same time strengthening its ties with the West.
Crossroads
South Caucasus affairs analyst Alexander Yudin believes that the recent decisions in Georgia, which received severe criticism from the European Union, come in the context of resetting the orientation towards Western institutions, so that they do not lead to neglecting relations with the historical neighbor represented by Russia and becoming a victim of the tension between Moscow and Brussels.
According to his analysis by Al Jazeera Net, the recent decision to prevent voters from voting abroad came in response to the European Union severing its relations with the Georgian government and an attempt to delegitimize a country that was considered its closest political partner in the South Caucasus.
According to Yudin, the EU’s decision to freeze Georgia’s accession, statements by the European Commission and the European Parliament invalidating the 2024 Georgian parliamentary and presidential elections, threats to impose sanctions on government officials, and restrictions on travel visas for Georgian diplomats and citizens have all severely damaged the credibility of the Union, and undermined cooperation in all areas from economics to politics.
He adds that the European Union, by applying standards without a clear strategy, has weakened its partners in Georgia and empowered the forces opposing it there, and thus risks losing its foothold in one of the most important republics of the South Caucasus, and creating a geopolitical vacuum in favor of Moscow.
Massive demonstrations and confrontations in Georgia after the suspension of negotiations to join the European Union pic.twitter.com/4A6KitkfZB
– Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) November 29, 2024
Reckless policies
For his part, Georgian affairs specialist Givi Abashidze explains that the ongoing diplomatic dispute between Tbilisi and Brussels exploded for the first time in 2022, when the Russian-Ukrainian war destabilized regional security and significantly changed the balance of power in Europe’s eastern neighborhood, giving impetus to Euro-Atlantic integration from Sweden through Moldova to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It seemed as if the time had come for Georgia to transform its “hard-won” Euro-Atlantic partnership into a comprehensive political and economic partnership, and for the European Union to strengthen its influence and expand its limited geopolitical presence in the South Caucasus, says Abashidze.
But the mistake committed by the Union – according to Abashidze – is that Brussels, instead of nominating Georgia to join it in 2022, pressured Tbilisi to join the sanctions regime on Russia, which led to a series of events that in turn caused aggravation of bilateral relations and a complete lack of communication between the two parties.
He says that the decision of the authorities in Georgia came in the context of an ongoing escalation of the conflict with Brussels, and was fueled by repeated mutual signs of disagreement, such as the European Commission’s decision not to invite Tbilisi to high-level political forums, and the head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe joining the demonstrators in the streets calling for the overthrow of the government, which led to its decision not to attend the European Parliamentary Assembly and to take decisions directed primarily against Western policies.
The analyst concludes that this could lead to serious strategic and security threats to the European Union in Georgia, which is considered a region of major geostrategic importance as home to transportation corridors and energy infrastructure vital for the future of safe and stable European supply chains, especially in light of the sanctions that the Union is implementing and planning on transportation through Moscow to end all Russian fossil fuel imports by the end of 2027.