Fifteen years after Russia invaded neighboring Georgia, many in the country fear President Vladimir Putin has launched a new “quiet invasion” focused on disinformation campaigns and anti-Western propaganda in an attempt to extend Russia’s reach.
Russia seized 20% of Georgia’s territory during a five-day battle in 2008, upending the lives of many, including 87-year-old Valya Vanishvili. Though afraid of Russia, the defiant grandmother of four has refused to leave her home in Khurvaleti, a village inside South Ossetia, a breakaway province of Georgia now occupied by Russia. Vanishvili lives in an area choked off by barbed wire and patrolled by Russian soldiers, leaving her to rely on outsiders to get food and medicine.
“What if they take me and detain me? Nobody can help me,” Vanishvili said in Georgian. “I am alone. When it’s only [a] couple of them, I can always answer them and fight back. But when it’s a lot of them, there’s nothing I can do.”
60 Minutes
Georgia, a country of almost 4 million, has tried to escape the Kremlin’s grip since 2008, but the war in Ukraine is complicating that.
Georgia’s strategic importance to Russia
Russia and Georgia share a 556-mile border. United Nations data shows that since the war in Ukraine began, everything from cars to chemicals have rolled into Russia through Georgia. There are long lines of cargo trucks at the border. The U.N. estimates billions of dollars of goods have made their way through Georgia and into Russia since 2022, providing a lifeline to the Russian regime, which has been dealing with Western sanctions.
The executive power to control Georgias’ borders is squarely in the hands of Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvil.
Garibashvili, says that he…
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