Author of the article: Irakli Gambashidze
As the elections are approaching, pro-Russian propaganda machines are trying not only to discredit Georgian pro-Western movements, but also to sow anti-European sentiments in society. Integration into Western structures will strengthen Georgia, including economically. All this is probably logical, an enemy state is not at all desirable, because it is easier to subjugate a weak country than a strong one. That is why Russia has been trying to strengthen anti-Western sentiments in Georgia for years and has been using various methods for this. Among them there are myths that may be different in different countries. The Russian propaganda machine has well studied the views and values of the population where it is going to compete. That is why anti-Western myths, in most cases, are connected to the attack on those values, which are very important for the population.
The European Union is a long-term partner and supporter of Georgia, therefore, it is not at all surprising that one of the Kremlin’s targets is this. In this article we discuss 10 lies about the European Union created by propaganda.
“Georgianness is Being Taken Away from Us”
One of the most widespread and established lies about the European Union is that it wants to make Georgian traditions disappear and replace them with European ones; It is as if it does not respect the Christian religion and tries to undermine its popularity. The truth is that the most widespread religion in the European Union is Christianity, and the population of several member countries (Greece, Romania, Bulgaria) is mainly Orthodox. Despite this, Russian propaganda wants to see a single-faith nation only in the north.
The EU’s positive attitude towards Georgian culture is evident in the many cultural events funded by Western money. The most recent of these is EU4Culture, which ran from 2021 to 2024 and resulted in several Georgian cities receiving grants from the EU.
While many cultural projects are financed by the European Union, which help us to study our historical sides, Russia actively destroys and has been destroying the most important cultural monuments for the Georgian identity.
“LGBTQ+ Propaganda”
Another lie about the European Union is that it “spreads LGBTQ+ propaganda”, which serves to destroy the Georgian nation. The Russian propaganda machine plays a big role here as well. Unfortunately, homophobic opinions are still popular in Georgia, and the appeal to populist parties on this issue leads to an increase in popularity among the public. But like all the other lies discussed in this article, this one is devoid of any logic — besides the fact that “LGBT propaganda” does not exist, the term itself is discriminatory and homophobic.
Georgian pro-Russian propaganda wants to prove to society that basic, equal rights for all people, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, is “LGBT propaganda”. Here, too, the concepts and ideas offered by the European Union to Georgia are wrongly connected. The idea of equality around which the European Union is built requires states to treat all citizens equally and to prohibit discrimination on any grounds. Also, in a democratically developed society and state, it is necessary to protect the freedom of speech, expression and assembly-manifestation, so that all people can realize themselves, both in the general society and in the political arena.
The biggest problem of homophobic propaganda is that it creates a non-existent enemy in the society and tries to divide the population of Georgia into homosexuals and heterosexuals. Controversy between people due to sexual orientation primarily serves the interests of Russia, that is why they are trying to impose the interpreted Christian morality on society not only in Georgia, but also in other post-Soviet countries.
“It Is Impossible for Georgia to Join the EU”
This propaganda narrative directly serves to justify anti-Western rhetoric. Although the integration with the European Union was really delayed after the steps of the Georgian Dream, including the adoption of the Russian law and anti-Western statements, after the withdrawal of the homophobic and Russian law and the implementation of the right legislative policy, the negotiations that were actively opened before will actively return to the European agenda.
This is confirmed by the statements of representatives of European institutions to the Georgian authorities. For example, Ursula von der Leyen, in a statement made in May of this year, says that Georgia is standing at a crossroads and the country has deviated from the European path due to the Russian law introduced by the ruling party. Other members of the European Parliament also associate the deviation from the European course with the ruling party.
It should be noted that even under these conditions, the European Union is trying to support democratic changes in Georgia, including reforms to bring it closer to the European Union standards, in order to speed up the European integration process.
“The European Union Has Done Nothing for Georgia”
Along with the numerous cultural projects mentioned above, the European Union also offers other large-scale assistance packages to Georgia.
For example, the aid provided by the European Union to Georgia in the field of education — for Georgian students, there are a number of grant systems that offer students the opportunity to receive a high-level education with full funding. One of them is the Erasmus+ program, with the help of which, after 2014, more than 11,000 Georgian students received education in European universities, and Georgia is one of the biggest beneficiaries of this program.
Out of the great history of assistance provided by the European Union to Georgia, the assistance provided during the pandemic is quite important. During the crisis related to the management of the pandemic, the European Union sent a financial aid package of half a billion GEL to Georgia, part of which was free aid, and part was a low-interest loan. The vaccines donated by the European Union were also important, without which it would have been impossible to manage and end the pandemic in Georgia. Along with the common aid package of the European Union, individual European states will also help Georgia manage the pandemic, for example Lithuania, which gave us 15,000 vaccines as a gift during the most difficult period of the pandemic.
This is just a small list of help. According to the latest analysis of the data of the European Commission, only in the last five years, the funding received by the ministries and other state institutions of Georgia amounted to 517 million euros, and the amount allocated to civil society organizations is 46.1 million euros.
In addition, it is important not to forget the support of European states towards Georgia during the 2008 war, when the presidents of Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Ukraine arrived in Tbilisi and participated in the anti-occupation rally on Rustaveli Avenue, to diplomatically defend Georgia’s territorial integrity.
“Joining the European Union Increases the Risk of War with Russia”
The propaganda tries to justify the anti-Western course with the threat of Russian aggression and demagogically asserts that the European Union is dangerous for Georgia. The authors of the myth ignore the fact that EU membership, along with economic security, indirectly guarantees military security. Pro-Russian propaganda, as a counterbalance to the West, offers foreign neutrality. Considering that Georgia is a rather small state and is not self-sufficient in its own resources, the latter doctrine lacks the context of Georgia (and post-Soviet states in general) in international relations — Russia has extensive economic roots in Georgia, many Georgian production facilities are owned by Russian companies and Russian oligarchs. And our declaration of neutrality at this time will only stop the means of European development and strengthen the Russian forces. Without the support of the West, Georgia remains alone against Russia, whose imperialist intentions stem not from Georgia’s western aspirations, but from Russian foreign interests.
Consider the case of Moldova, which declared military neutrality after 1994. During this period, the influence of Russian oligarchs on the economy and politics of the state increased. Many Moldovan parties were openly pro-Russian, including the Socialist Party of Moldova, whose candidate, Igor Dodon, was the president of Moldova from 2016 to 2020 . Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made the importance of the European Union and NATO even clearer, so Moldova started to prepare the state for European integration, and today the country is one of the candidates for EU membership.
“The EU Is Afraid of Russia, So It Is Reluctant to Take Strong Steps Against It”
The source of this myth is the skepticism of the society about the surplus of Russian energy resources in Europe, which is well used by Russian propaganda to incite a negative attitude towards Europe. Europe’s anti-Russian attitude was best seen after Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. During the war, the European Union imposed massive sanctions on the aggressor, thus limiting trade with both Russian energy resources and European products. Only with these sanctions, Russia received the greatest economic losses. In addition, the Nord Stream project, which was supposed to be Gazprom’s new pipeline for supplying European countries, was stopped. Thanks to the sanctions presented by the European Union against Russia, the consumption of Gazprom in European countries in 2023 decreased three times compared to the data of 2021.
After the start of the war, thanks to the foreign trade policy made by Europe, the Russian Federation suffered a lot financially, which once again proves that the opinion that the West is not taking steps against Russia is wrong.
Among the steps taken by Europe against Russia, the aid provided to Ukraine is quite important, both from the humanitarian and military point of view. The total value of the aid provided by the European states is more than 80 billion euros.
“The European Union Is on the Verge of Collapse”
This myth also stems from the previous one and proves to us that the sanctions used by Europe against Russia are quite damaging for the European Union as well and lead to the deterioration of the social situation in European states. The myth does not correspond to reality and is completely disconnected from the true description of the socio-economic reality of Europe.
In order to properly consider the current situation in Europe, it is important to say that the EU does have economic challenges due to the post-pandemic period and the war in its neighborhood. For example, inflation caused by rising energy prices and each consumer having to pay more for energy resources such as natural gas. Also, the slowdown of economic development — the percentage increase of EU GDP is lower than in previous years.
Despite these challenges, the European Union still manages to maintain its strength. Proof of this is the low level of unemployment. The European Union, which has always been known for its abundance of jobs, even now, despite economic turbulence, maintains a high standard compared to other regions.
Despite the challenges, the European Union still offers its citizens extensive social packages. For example, unemployment packages, free and proper health care system, high pensions. With all this in mind, the challenges for people living in EU countries are less painful.
The purpose of Russian propaganda is to exaggerate the mentioned challenges and to present as if the current situation is more problematic than it is in reality. The propaganda also focuses only on the problems that are happening around the Euro-economy and not on the strengths that the EU economy has. Russian propaganda wants us to believe that the European Union is on the verge of collapse, which is a complete lie — Europe still retains its former strength.
“The EU Does Not Help Its Member States”
One of the most popular lies of the Russian propaganda against the European Union is that the Eastern European countries could not get proper economic or political support by joining the European Union, and these states remained in economic distress. A number of studies and statistical data about these states prove the opposite. The post-Soviet states, which are now members of the European Union (for example, Estonia) after joining the European Union (2004), were able to overcome the economic problems caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the average income increased, and the HDI rating increased. Such a success would be unthinkable without the help of the European Union — as its member country, Estonia received 9.1 billion euros of investment in 2004-2020. At the same time, the number of direct foreign investments has increased, because the membership of the European Union guarantees economic security in the state, which is an ideal ground for growing businesses.
“The EU Has Imperialistic Intentions”
To dispel this myth, first of all, it is important to clarify what the imperialist approach is, and then consider the relations between the European Union and Georgia in this context. In order for the attitude to be characterized as imperialistic, there must be an imperial core that uses the resources of the periphery/colony according to its economic interests: it takes the extracted resource out of this state, does not effectively increase the perspective of the colonial state’s economic independent development, and does not effectively develop its means of production (production of products from extracted raw materials takes place in another state). Imperialist states are often characterized by either facilitating the rule of corrupt governments in the periphery or military intervention to maintain power.
The economic relationship between the European Union and Georgia is completely based on mutual benefit, which is completed to the satisfaction of both parties. The European Union also promotes democratic reforms in Georgia and opposes undemocratic steps. The European Union also helps Georgia in the development of local production and the private sector , which is radically opposed to imperialist attitudes.
“People Do not Want to Join the European Union”
This myth appeared due to political hopelessness in the society – as if the Georgian people do not want to join the European Union and there are still pro-Russian sentiments in the society. The opposite is proven by the number of people supporting the European Union at rallies and rallies, for example, at one such rally, more than 100,000 people came out to support the European future of Georgia.
The pro-Western views of the Georgian people are also confirmed by numerous studies and public surveys conducted to describe the political trends in the country. For example, the NDI survey conducted at the end of last year confirms that 79% of the population has a positive attitude towards Georgia’s accession to the European Union. A similar attitude of the vast majority of the population can be seen in various surveys conducted in other years.
The pro-Western views of the Georgian people are also confirmed by the plebiscite held in 2008, where 77% of the population supported joining NATO. Therefore, integration in the West is the choice and goal of the Georgian people.
Finally, we remind you once again that Russia’s goal is to incite and strengthen anti-Western sentiments in Georgia, for which it is trying to spread myths about the European Union through propaganda. Establishing these myths among the Georgian people will lead to a departure from the European integration process, which only pours water on the Russian mill. That is why it is necessary to recognize Russian propaganda and act against its spread.