Episode description

On the 28th of May, in a small country on the easternmost reaches of Europe, a new law came into effect.

For the vast majority of people around the world, this new ruling, in a nation of fewer than 4 million inhabitants, went largely unnoticed.

However, for many of the citizens of Georgia it marked a setback, throwing off course the country’s prospects of joining the European Union and aligning it more closely with Moscow.

This week on The Inquiry we’re asking, ‘Is Georgia turning its back on Europe?’

Contributors:

Megi Kartsivadze, DPhil student, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford, and an invited lecturer at the University of Tbilisi, Georgia

Professor Stephen Jones, Director of the Program on Georgian Studies at the Davis Center at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Dr. Lia Tsuladze, Executive Director of the Center for Social Sciences and an Associate Professor of Sociology at Tbilisi State University, Georgia

Maia Nikoladze, Assistant Director in the GeoEconomics Center, Atlantic Council, Washington DC

Production team:

Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Lorna Reader Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Researcher: Matt Toulson Production Coordinators: Ellie Dover & Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Image Credit: David Mdzinarishvili/Epa-Efe/Rex/Shutterstock