Events in neighbouring Georgia are being closely watched in Yerevan, an Armenian correspondent cited in his article.  

Since mid November a new wave of protests has covered Georgia. This time the trigger was Parliament’s failure to make necessary amendments in the Georgian constitution to introduce a fully proportional system with no threshold in upcoming 2020 Parliamentary elections. This reform was promised by the leader of the ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili during the summer 2019 protests, Eurasia Diary reports citing Common Europe. However, the Majoritarian MPs from the ruling party have played key role in undermining this reform. Despite the statements of Mr. Ivanishvili and Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia that they regret this outcome, main opposition parties as well as most part of the civil society stated that the negative vote in Parliament was orchestrated by Mr. Ivanishvili as he was not sure that ruling Georgian Dream party could keep its leading positions in case of fully proportional parliamentary elections

The Parliamentary vote was the trigger but not the key reason for protests. The active part of Georgian society has been in a protest mode for a while.

There are two main reasons behind the growing resentment and disappointment in Georgia. The first is the deterioration of the social-economic situation. Despite some economic growth, no significant improvements of life standards for average citizens have been achieved in recent years. The depreciation of Georgian currency resulted in a price hike of imported goods. No economic breakthrough is visible, which means that the best case scenario for Georgia is keeping the current average life standards.

The second issue is the growing concern among active part of the Georgian society regarding the rising Russian influence in Georgia. In the summer, millions of Russian tourists transform downtown Tbilisi into an essentially Russian speaking district. Simultaneously, Russian big business feels comfortable in Georgia, including such Kremlin related companies as Rosneft. The speculations that Mr. Ivanishvili is being supported by the Kremlin and has some hidden agenda to bring Georgia back to the Russian sphere of influence are popular with opposition circles in Georgia, and for them the rising Russian influence is therefore even more alarming. 

Another source of concern for Georgians is the de facto deadlock in their Euro-integration aspirations. The Association Agreement with EU, Visa liberalization, NATO – Georgia commission and substantial NATO – Georgia package are the maximum which EU and NATO are able to offer Georgia. All actors (EU, NATO, Russia, the US as well Georgian political circles) clearly understand that Georgia will be neither EU nor NATO member for at least coming 15 years. The growing signs of possible launch of the EU/US – Russia normalization process make Georgians insecure and as pawns in bigger geopolitical games.