Is Georgia still a Russian target?

Russia is still a potential military threat to Georgia. The Russian news outlet Gazeta.ru cites a NATO official, who excludes the possibility of a direct attack on Georgia by Russia, but stresses that another negative development could take place.

Journalist and military analyst Pavel Felgengauer suggests that the current situation in Ukraine influences the whole region. He assumes that Russia will not allow for close relations between Ukraine, NATO and the EU.

“Russia wants to remove Ukraine’s pro-Western leadership, and it will use various political, economic and domestic measures to achieve this goal.

“Russia could have invaded Tbilisi in 2008, but instead used a different approach. Moscow tried to change the government through other means and partially succeeded.

Economic sanctions have thus far failed to stop Russia. On the contrary, Russia tries to broaden areas under its control in Ukraine.

Gazeta.ru suggests that Russia might use the same “hybrid” war tactics on Georgia as well. The newspaper claims that because of this, NATO is paying close attention to Georgia.

The majority representatives in parliament state that the possibility of an attack exists theoretically.

“We lack ideal relations with Russia, but we have not such bad relations where we should expect Russia to invadeour country in the near future,” explained majority MP Tedo Japaridze.

Head of Parliamnet’s Defence and Security Council Irakli Sesiashvili also describes Russia as unpredictable, and emphasizes that much will depend on the consequences of the Ukrainian conflict.

It is obvious that the current situation in Ukraine boosted the West and NATO’ s interest in the post-Soviet states. NATO officials have stressed that Georgia was given the best offer from the alliance compared to other NATO partners.