"Georgian Dream" wants to be more closely connected with Moscow than with the West, said Stanford University professor Francis Fukuyama in an interview with "Voice of America".

As he noted, the draft law initiated by the Georgian government, based on the Russian model, distances Georgia from the West and brings it closer to Moscow.

According to him, he does not think that "Georgian Dream" will be offended by the fact that the approval of the bill will hinder the process of Georgia's European integration, because the ruling party "always lied" and after Russia's progress in the war with Ukraine, it is more open in its support for Russia.

"I think they will use more force against the demonstrators. The real model of this law in Georgia is the one adopted in Russia and used to eliminate any opposition to Putin's regime. In Western democracies and pseudo-democracies, passing this law is not a problem [with each other]. They say they are not against NGOs and they just want transparency. What they really want is a legal mechanism to suppress any critical voices that may exist, first in Russia and now in Georgia. "Georgian Dream" wants to be more closely connected with Moscow than with the West. I don't think they are particularly offended by the fact that this will hinder Georgia's accession to the European Union. They will not be unhappy that it will hurt [the candidate's] status. I think they lied all along. They really don't want that outcome. I think this is because in the war with Ukraine, the moment seems to be leaning towards Russia. This freed "Georgian Dream" to be more open in its support for Russia," said Francis Fukuyama.

According to him, he does not consider such sanctions as the suspension of visa liberalization appropriate and believes that the best leverage is personal sanctions.

"I think the biggest source of leverage is the imposition of targeted sanctions against certain individuals in Georgia. I do not consider it appropriate to apply such general sanctions as canceling [the] visa-free regime that Europe offers to Georgian citizens. I think it is possible to modify the general sanctions in such a way that visas are required from people who support the law [against] non-governmental organizations in the parliament, as well as some key officials who seem to be behind the efforts of the Georgian government to put pressure on opposition groups, to suppress their voices." , - noted Fukuyama in an interview with "Voice of America".

ipn.ge