but they've also tried to steer a moderate course in thawing things with Russia

the UNM will be far more belligerent

I see, it's all about its value as a piece vs Russia

Their biggest problem though is the siren song of "western lifestyle "

yeah the incumbent party is basically trying to acknowledge reality

Russia is Georgia's largest trading partner, it's biggest source of tourists

Putin's flight ban was a massive blow to the economy and the government will get blamed for the lari's collapse

WizzAir won't keep them afloat, huh?

nah there's no way that Georgia can make up the difference with European and American tourism

Georgia is cheap but it's also far out of the way

not really on anyone's radar

It is really just a small place up in the hills next to Russia

Armenia is also trying to eat their lunch with similar anti-corruption reforms

streamlining the bureaucracy, getting rid of pointless laws

so Georgia's selling point of being a good place to do business will also recede

So their future is pretty much being something like Bosnia?

my estimation is that Georgian Dream (the incumbent party) will remain the largest party but all the opposition parties they fucked over in the past decade will gang up on them in a coalition

Bosnia without the ethnic conflict I guess

more like Serbia

a vacant parking lot used by all the derelicts in the neighborhood

honestly they've done a good job as far as governance

they didn't fuck with Saakashvili's good reforms, aside from overhauling the healthcare system

their main problem is the flight ban

Why did it happen?

the anti-government riots over the summer led Putin to ban flights as a security measure

it's a way of forcing the Georgians to shit or get off the pot

clearly declare their allegiance to Russia or the U.S.

the government dithered as long as they could and then picked the U.S. in the most weaselly, noncommittal way possible

pleasing no one

Oh, so they half-assed the entire thing and lost on both sides

exactly

and despite being an "illiberal," "authoritarian" government in the mold of Fidesz, every time the opposition sneezes they run to offer them a Kleenex and some cough drops

a big part of the problem is that Georgian Dream aren't really ideological and are just a bunch of cowardly civil servants and oligarchs

they want to keep skimming off the top and avoid serious issues

during the presidential election last year, Bidzina Ivanishvili (the capo of Georgian Dream), used one of his charitable foundations to buy up the debts of 400,000 people

which is a big number (the pop is only about 3 million)

Doesn't that raise questions?

it was a last ditch effort to win the election since the government candidate and UNM's candidate were tied

it raised questions but not enough for people to care because Salome Zurabishvili (the Georgian Dream candidate) ended up winning

she's a doofus

an expatriate who speaks Georgian in a French accent