MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. The United States wants to open a second front against Russia in Georgia, Dmitry Suslov, the deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics has told TASS.
"Such statements and threats of sanctions are an attempt to trigger a color revolution in Georgia, to further mobilize pro-Western forces that emerged and grew stronger on US grants and political assistance to hundreds of non-governmental organizations, which the Georgian authorities now want to put under greater control," said Suslov, an expert of the Valdai Club, while commenting on Washington's statements about a fundamental revision of relations in connection with the law on foreign agents.
Suslov emphasized that the US is "frankly making it clear that it is ready to throw Georgia, its sovereignty and its survival into the furnace of this geopolitical struggle against Russia."
"The Americans do not care about Georgia as a country, they are not interested in Georgians as a people. They are interested in opening a second front against Russia in a situation where the first front in Ukraine is obviously failing, unable to cope with its task," the analyst said.
In a situation of Ukraine’s failure, the United States "not only escalates the war in Ukraine, but also tries to open a second or third front to distract Russia, to make it redistribute and scatter resources."
"The US needs a complete lack of Georgian sovereignty and a chance to use of Georgia as expendable material against Russia," Suslov explained.
Attempts to achieve regime change
According to the expert, the US wants to "achieve the overthrow of the current government in Georgia and plant supporters of ex-president Mikhail Saakashvili in commanding positions."
"Such a scenario, according to Suslov, "will be fraught with a deadly threat to Georgian statehood".
The analyst also believes that the threat to impose sanctions against Georgia indicates "the final loss of all decency in US foreign policy."
"They are no longer hiding their rude interference in the internal political affairs of a country, which, in their opinion, is behaving wrongly," he continued. "They confirm that all speculations about democracy, human rights, standards and so on are hypocritical, and that the democracy of a state is evaluated through the lens of whether it serves American foreign policy interests well enough. In this particular case, whether or not it participates in the hybrid war against Russia."
The Americans, as Suslov noted, have been pushing Georgia to pursue an appropriate policy since the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict, but the current Georgian leadership has refused to play such a role. In retaliation the US stepped up pressures.
What about relations with Russia?
The further march of events will depend on whether the US manages to stage a new color revolution in Georgia, Suslov believes.
"If the Georgian leadership withstands the unprecedented US pressure, then, of course, relations between Georgia and the West will be frozen for a long time, while Russian-Georgian relations will significantly improve and strengthen. I think the question may even arise about the resumption of official diplomatic relations," the expert predicted.
He also recalled that while bill on foreign agents was still in the discussion stage in parliament, despite the heavy support from protesting supporters of Saakashvili it turned out impossible to organize a color revolution.
"The Georgian leadership stayed firm. It avoided acting like [former Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovich," the expert pointed out. "It achieved the approval of the bill in the final, third reading, although the opponents of this law and members of the pro-Western circles, enjoying support of the United States and its European satellites, tried to storm the building of the Georgian parliament."
However, now the United States is increasing pressure. It will impose sanctions on the Georgian leadership. The EU is likely to withdraw its decision to grant Georgia the status of a candidate for accession, Suslov predicts. At the same time, he said, the West is hoping that a clear regress in relations with Georgia "will cause an even greater wave of protests, an even greater mobilization of the pro-Western factions, which might make it possible to overthrow the current Georgian government by hook or by crook."
Georgia against blackmail
The current Georgian leadership has set a firm course towards revitalizing and strengthening national sovereignty, says Suslov.
"This explains why they want to pass this law to put under greater control the ‘fifth column’ - those numerous organizations and structures which serve their overseas patrons, the United States, and not Georgia. Georgia rejects such blatant blackmail by the US," Suslov explained.
He also added that the Georgian authorities had been able to see in Ukraine and before in their own country that the United States uses such countries as Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova as expendable material in pursuit of its political aims and in such conditions began to strengthen their sovereignty.