Thread by @MollyMcKew

In Georgia today, there was a remarkable display support for Ukraine in the streets of Tbilisi.

Zelensky thanks them: “there are times when citizens are not the govt, but better than the govt.”

It’s important to understand what he means. Short thread /1

/1

Zelensky is fighting to keep Moscow from imposing another puppet leader in Kyiv.

Another leader like Yanukovych, who eroded the work of the Orange Revolution, moving 🇺🇦 by steps away from the westward integration the people wanted, eroding state institutions like the army /2

Yanu effectively left 🇺🇦 defenseless. Ukrainians took to the Maidan in 2013, over months of bravery chased Yanu from 🇺🇦 for betraying them, slaughtering some in their ranks.

When he fled, Russian forces were already in place to seize Crimea. /3

When the war in eastern Ukraine began against Russian-backed faux separatists, 🇺🇦 had to build a defense force in wartime.

When I say betray, I mean it. Yanu destabilized & weakened Ukraine for Putin, step by step—like Putin, underestimating the will of the Ukrainian people /4

What does this have to do with Georgia & Zelensky saying the Georgians in the streets were better then their govt?

In 2008, Georgia—with western economic & diplomatic support—withstood Russian attempts to remove its govt by force/invasion.

Putin loathed president Saakashvili /5

More, he loathed what Saakashvili had done to transform Georgia and move it mentally toward the West.

Russian leaders and propaganda frequently did things like call him a drug-addict who deserved the war they gave him. You know, like Putin did to Zelensky this week: /6

Much to Putin’s dismay, Saakashvili survived the war. He had loud friends, like John McCain.
Georgia got aid. Georgia survived.

In 2012, a wackadoo Russian-made oligarch won the parliamentary elections in Georgia.

And step by step, his party has weaken Georgia, stalled it. /7

Mostly this was too slow for anyone to care. They were relieved Georgia stopped pushing so hard to get in NATO, for example. The quiet was good they thought.

After the Russian invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, this new government of Georgia was preeeeeeeeetty quiet /8

Now you would think, as a country that Russia had invaded 6 years before, Georgia would have an awful lot to say about the Russian invasion of Ukraine given the similar pretexts & playbooks involved.

But no.

Not a word from the icky-garch party led Georgian govt. /9

No visits by ministers to the post-Maidan Ukraine. No support for anything, no statements.

Instead, many former officials from Saakashvili’s team ended up in Ukraine, training police and helping on a wide range of reforms to rebuild Ukraine. Many of them still work there now/10

Fast forward to today when the weak-tea henchman PM of the Georgia announces that 🇬🇪 will not support sanctions against Russia for its war of aggression in Ukraine.

Georgia used to do this kind of stuff to show it belonged in the EU & NATO. These sad clowns are “both sides” /11

Asked to even nominally show support for Ukraine, he shrugs. “I have my own job… the war is in Ukraine.”

Step by step, step by step. Erode. Weaken. Distance. /12

So the Georgian people who support Ukraine and feel historical and modern kinship for Ukraine — the Rose Revolution in 🇬🇪 and the Orange Revolution in 🇺🇦 were the beginning of Putin’s nightmares of his own end — responded with 👇

Spontaneously. Immediately. /13

Zelensky called a spade a spade today, knowing what this government of Georgia is and what it is doing (weakening the state) /14

So the point here is:

we need to stop these patterns and iterations of Russian aggression and bullshit by defeating Putin’s attempt to decapitate and capture Ukraine.

Invasions, pressure, blackmail, weakening governments — this will continue until we stop Putin. /15

The people of Georgia know it. 🇬🇪

The people of Ukraine know it. 🇺🇦

Let’s break the cycle. /16