On October 17, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reiterated Russia’s readiness to help Georgia “normalize relations” with Russian-occupied Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region. She also praised the current Georgian Dream government’s willingness to apologize to Tskhinvali and spoke of Western attempts to open a “second front” in Georgia.
EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell commented on the importance of the upcoming elections in Georgia before the European Council meeting, emphasizing that the country’s future is at stake. “In Georgia, there is a clear democratic backsliding. The next elections will be the moment of truth and the Georgian people will have to decide which way they want to go: towards Europe or getting apart from Europe,” Borell told journalists.
The U.S. Helsinki Commission issued a statement on the upcoming elections in Georgia, calling on the Georgian authorities to “honor their obligations to their country and citizens by holding free and fair elections.” “The government’s authoritarian trajectory imperils Georgia’s democratic future and its people’s deep-seated Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” the statement also reads.
The fight against the Russian-style Foreign Agents Law continues in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after the country’s Constitutional Court refused to suspend it. 16 media organizations, 120 civil society organizations, and four individuals plan to file a joint complaint with the ECHR, as Nona Kurdovanidze, the Director of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), announced during a briefing.
In an interview with the leading American newspaper POLITICO, President Salome Zurabishvili claimed that the ruling party’s patron, Bidzina Ivanishvili, may still have ties to Moscow or that they have grown closer. In an interview, she also spoke of the risks of the country’s isolation, the Russian threat, and the “existential” importance of the upcoming elections.
On October 17, the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities adopted a declaration “The situation in Georgia,” expressing deep concern about Georgia’s democratic backsliding and the weakening of human rights in the country, mentioning the anti-democratic Foreign Agents Law and anti-LGBTI legislation. The declaration was adopted with 76 votes in favor, 10 against, and 6 abstentions.
On 16 October, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) sold USD 64.9 million out of the USD 70 million in an attempt to support the national currency, the Lari (GEL). According to NBG, large, one-time transactions continue to influence the foreign exchange market, impacting Lari’s exchange rate, and fluctuations in the foreign exchange market are not linked to macroeconomic factors. One week ago, the NBG sold $48.5 million in an effort to support the national currency.