The European Commission divided the enforcement of the regulations into two stages because this represents a kind of last chance, political analyst Gia Khukhashvili says in response to the European Commission’s report on Georgia, which states that at the first stage, the suspension of visa-free travel may apply to holders of diplomatic, service, and official passports issued by the Georgian government, and at the second stage, it may be extended to the entire population.

According to Khukhashvili, the authorities will not use this last chance.

“The dynamics are such that the situation will inevitably reach this point [the loss of visa-free status]. Not only are the obligations that the country has undertaken for EU integration being violated, but our own constitution is also being violated, which explicitly states that the government must do everything to accelerate the process of European integration. The European Union is built on a certain system of values and rules, and when you violate these rules, why should you have preferences within the Union? Imagine you want to live in someone’s house and they tell you that smoking is not allowed in their home, and you reply that you don’t care, you’ll smoke if you want and do whatever you like. What reaction would the homeowner have to that? So everything here is natural.

The European Commission split the enforcement of the regulations into two stages because this is a kind of last chance for someone to come to their senses. From what I observe, they will not use this chance, because their entire policy of staying in power is built on pseudo-patriotism and a Russian narrative. If they give that up, what would this government stand on? They have nothing else.

In effect, we are fully integrated [with Russia]. Our legislation is integrated into the same framework that exists in Russia. Administration is carried out in exactly the same way, civil society is being destroyed just as it is in Russia, economic expansion is underway, migration expansion is underway, and the main electronic media operate using Russian talking points. They want to keep their head in Russia and warm another part of their body in Europe, but in the end, everything has its limits—‘even conscience is a valuable commodity,’” Gia Khukhashvili said.