Shalva Papuashvili: Everyone must grasp the fate that awaited Georgia had power rested with those who still wave foreign flags

“Georgia was primed to play the role of a second front, to serve as a cost-effective shield for the defence of the European Union,” stated Shalva Papuashvili, Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia.

Papuashvili was asked to comment on remarks made by the deputy leader of the parliamentary group of Germany’s ruling party, who suggested that “supporting Ukraine is the most cost-effective way to guarantee German security.”

As Papuashvili emphasised, such remarks underscore the ruthless pragmatism of international geopolitics and reflect the increasingly overt and brazen rhetoric used by certain foreign actors.

“They view Ukraine merely as their own defensive perimeter. Time and again, they have declared that Ukraine serves as a defensive line for European nations. Indeed, it is ‘cost-effective’ for them. They do not have to fight themselves. German, French, and Lithuanian blood is not being spilt. It is Ukrainian blood being shed to guarantee the security of the European Union.

This once again demonstrates how cold-blooded international politics truly is, and how effortless it is for some to speak in such a tone, so directly and shamelessly, about Ukraine being used as a cheap buffer to protect the EU.

We must all reflect once again on what would have happened to Georgia if parliament and the government were controlled by the very people who, even today, continue to wave foreign flags. They would have actively welcomed being sent to the front lines. Zurab Japaridze said as much: ‘Let us contribute somehow, even if we merely tie down 20,000 Russian soldiers; by engaging them in combat, we can prevent them from deploying elsewhere.’

This is what they were prepared for; this is the role Georgia was being set up to play. This drove the attempts to rig the 2020 election results; it was the exact same motivation that led foreign intelligence services to smuggle Mikheil Saakashvili into the country in 2021, after prior consultations in Brussels and Washington.

Ultimately, Georgia was expected to act as a second front to keep European defence cost-effective, forcing us to fight and pin down Russian forces here while others sat in seminars and panel discussions, calmly debating our fate. They would have applauded us and rolled out red carpets; yet soon enough, there would have been no one left alive to walk down those red carpets,” Papuashvili declared.