Bryan Gigantino is a Tbilisi-based writer on Soviet history and the post-Soviet world. He is cohost of the podcast Reimagining Soviet Georgia.
For decades, Georgian neoliberals have justified obedience to Washington, relentless pro-market reforms, and soaring inequality in the name of Westernization. But Russia’s war has only revived claims that Georgia needs to bind itself tighter to the West.
This morning, Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to a cease-fire after almost two weeks of fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. But like after the last truce in 1994, there can be no enduring peace without a political solution — one that overcomes the violent legacy of the Soviet collapse in the Caucasus.