TBILISI, DFWatch–The push from Georgian Dream (GD) party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili to challenge Western-funded NGOs should be seen not as a turn toward Russia, but as an attempt to assert greater political autonomy, according to political analyst Mirian Mirianashvili.
In an interview with Interpressnews, he argued that recent political developments in Georgia reflect a broader geopolitical realignment, with the United States pursuing a strategy to reshape the South Caucasus region in line with its global interests.
Mirianashvili claims that Washington’s policy aims to reshape the region by weakening Russian influence and aligning Georgia more tightly with Western strategic goals. He describes this as a top-down initiative led by the U.S. that began years ago, designed to exert indirect control over Georgia through civil society institutions and selected political actors.
In this context, he views Ivanishvili’s recent re-engagement with politics, including moves that critics have called authoritarian, as “a political instinct of self-preservation” aimed at resisting external pressure. According to Mirianashvili, “if Ivanishvili had not acted as he did, the country would have faced a deepening loss of sovereignty.”
He argues that Western actors, particularly U.S.-aligned NGOs and opposition groups, had been preparing to challenge the Georgian government’s legitimacy using tactics similar to those seen in past “color revolutions.” In this vein, Mirianashvili sees the controversial foreign agent law and other moves by the government not as tools of repression, but as responses to a perceived threat.
The analyst sees the current polarization as not simply a domestic conflict, but a reflection of broader geopolitical currents. Georgia, in his view, is caught between two paths: either external alignment under U.S. influence, or a more assertive, independent stance. (Interpressnews.)
