In Georgia, people worry about ending up like Ukraine as government leans towards Russia

Levan is sitting in his very old car smiling at us through the snow, his eyes twinkling, amused by our discomfort. Not many people come to visit this corner of Georgia, and today the snow is billowing around us.

It is biting cold and there is a large stray dog staring at us with a slight air of menace. Welcome to Brotsleti.

We are just a few kilometres from one of the most significant borders in continental Europe. Along the road is a heavily fortified checkpoint that protects the entrance to South Ossetia, the Georgian region that was annexed by Russia 16 years ago.

Russian tanks rolled through this small village; missiles landed; troops marched in.

Over the course of five days of one-sided conflict, the Russians took control, established borders and claimed that South Ossetia had become a newly independent republic.

Hardly anyone else actually believes that, not least because there are still thousands of Russian troops stationed in South Ossetia, quietly intimidating the Georgians on the other side of the frontier.

Levan has lived here for all his 67 years, and he has the weather-beaten face to go along with a tough life. He calls himself a peasant and tells me his car, a Volga, is 63 years old.

It was left to him by his father and Levan uses it every day. It should be in a museum; instead, here it is, pounding away through the snow and potholes, still in one magnolia piece.

“There used to be 25 villages beyond here,” he says, waving in the direction of the border. “Now they’re gone. The money from those 25 villages used to circulate here.”

He looks around at the meagre cluster of shops around us and shrugs. “You always hear gunshots. They hold military exercises in what used to be Georgian villages. There’s a firing range and they shoot there.

“There has not been an incident where they fired from there to here, but you still have a feeling of fear.”

We drive up to the border and see the crossing point. It is a hefty collection of fortified buildings and camouflage, but no sooner have we approached than we are approached by a guard and told to turn around. A police car then starts following us around. Nerves are fraught in this area.

So much has changed in the years since Russia invaded, but now Georgia finds itself back in a state of flux.

For a long time, fearful of more Russian aggression, the country was pushed along by a wave of support for joining the EU and NATO. Polling suggests that most Georgians still want to pursue that.

But now the ruling party has gone cold on the idea.

Georgian Dream was created and then bankrolled by a multi-billionaire called Bidzina Ivanishvili who made his money in Russia and is, by a spectacularly wide margin, the richest man in Georgia. His party has been in charge for the past 12 years and has decided that closer ties with the West are no longer a good idea.

Instead, Georgian Dream first introduced a “foreign agents” law that looks remarkably similar to oppressive legislation introduced in Russia. The party then won a general election that was widely criticised as rigged by international observers, European countries and Georgia’s president. It has now postponed all negotiations over joining the EU.

“It’s clear that the current Georgian leadership, the rhetoric that they are using, the choices that they make, is leaning towards Russia,” says Olesya Vartanyan, an expert on security and conflicts in the region.

“It became more obvious with the start of the Ukraine war when Georgia took the decision not to join some of the sanctions that the West imposed on Russia.

“Even more, Georgia did everything possible to distance itself from the West and, in that way, it took the side of Russia. I think that the interests of Russia and Georgian Dream do coincide.”

Protests have become a regular sight outside the Georgian parliament.

Anger, especially among more liberal voters in Tbilisi, has boiled over. We saw many anti-Russian slogans daubed on many walls and spoke to plenty of people who thought that the new government is taking orders from Moscow. Opposition parties have all boycotted the new parliament.

But there are others who think it is a fool’s errand to provoke Russia by flirting with closer ties to the West.

Their logic was inflamed by posters created by Georgian Dream during the election, showing pictures of devastation in Ukraine alongside the suggestion that it could be Georgia next.

“We move towards Europe, and Russia threatens us with bombing; we move towards Russia, and Europe threatens us with ‘we won’t feed you, we won’t help you’,” says Marina Bachia, who runs a market stall in the capital.

“We are just a tiny nation,” Marina adds. “Whoever can help us, they should. But nobody cares.”