Hi, everyone. I'm Glenn Dyson, and I'm joined today by Alexander Mercuris and Ian Proud,

who has been a member of the British Diplomatic Service from 99 to 2023. He's also served

at the British Embassy in Moscow between 2014 and 19. And I would add also a prolific analyst and a writer

who appear almost everywhere this days, it seems.

So it's really great to have the both of you back.

Thanks so much, Glad.

And nice to join you both again.

Well, our topic today, though, is that of Georgia and Moldova and their elections, because

I think there's a lot of parallels to be drawn to Ukraine.

Indeed, I published a book back in 2014 where I addressed the failure of constructing a

common European security system after the Cold War and by instead expanding exclusive

blocks, be it both NATO and the EU. So my conclusion was simply then that, you know, we were

reviving this Cold War logic. But instead of fighting for influence in the third world,

we would fight more of where to draw the new dividing lines in Europe. And the problematic

issue of, of course, being European integration now entails decoupling from Russia, which is

the largest state in Europe, and pursuing a very pro-NATO EU policy and the anti-Russian one. So this

continuation of bloc politics would then also be continued

under often the guise of liberal democracy, but it wouldn't always coincide. And I think this

is especially true in the common neighborhood, be it Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and I guess

you can even put Belarus into the same category.

That is, once you're entering the immediate border of Russia, it becomes an issue of international security.

But in addition, one has to also be honest that these societies are deeply divided.

...