'Watershed' for Georgia as Voters choose between Russia and west

Georgians will vote today in a critical election that could determine whether one of the once most pro-western former Soviet states will veer towards a more authoritarian, Russia-aligned path.

- Piotr Sauer

For the past three decades, Georgia – a nation of 3.6 million people nestled in the Caucasus mountains – has maintained strong pro-western aspirations, with polls showing that up to 80% of its residents favour joining the European Union.

In recent years, however, the government, led by the populist Georgian Dream (GD) party, has shifted away from the west in favour of Russia, showing reluctance to condemn Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

The parliamentary elections are seen by many as the most important since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, said Kornely Kakachia, the director of the Georgian Institute of Politics.

"This is a watershed moment that will determine whether the country becomes a sovereign democracy integrated with the west or falls back into Russia's sphere of influence," he said in an interview in the capital, Tbilisi.

GD, which has been in power since 2012, was founded by the shadowy billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s and is viewed by many friends and foes as Georgia's most powerful figure even though he has not held public office for more than a decade.