As Georgian protesters marched on parliament against a new "foreign agents" law last week, they bore signs that said "No to Russian law!", and others decrying the spirit of autocracy and imperialism that is firmly associated with Moscow's influence in the region.
By all appearances, the law they opposed was a local initiative to allow the ruling Georgian Dream party to crack down on civil society and win forthcoming elections. But that party's perceived closeness to Moscow and the similarities to a notorious Russian law against "foreign agents" were a popular rallying cry for Georgians who joined the protests.
"Everybody knows that Russia is not popular here," said Kornely Kakachia, a professor at Tbilisi State University and the director of the Tbilisi-based Georgian Institute of Politics. "And [the protesters] also want to show Georgians what would be the result of this [law]. Just look at what has happened with Russia."
The invasion of Ukraine has amplified fears of Russian aggression in some countries and forced others, considered allies, to at least reappraise Moscow's role as a stable partner. And it has accelerated a trend among young people who were born after the Soviet Union era to take a more vocal stance against Russian influence in the region.
"Russia has lost its soft power," said Kakachia. "They don't know how to use it any more with their neighbours. They just use this brutal force."
Russia's actions have backfired in many ways. Ukraine has received unprecedented military aid from a US-led coalition; Finland and Sweden applied for Nato membership; and the west has shown unexpected fortitude in imposing sanctions on Moscow and resisting the use of Russian energy.
Among Moscow's near neighbours, years of work to cultivate political elites, develop a reliance on Russian security guarantees and instil local nostalgia for the Soviet Union have also been shaken.
This story is from the March 17, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the March 17, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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