I'm John Batchel with Anatole leaving the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Anatole has written most recently of the Georgia election before and now it's after.

I read the headlines.

This is Georgia Tbilisi headquarters, head, capital.

Thousands rally again in Georgia

to protest the parliamentary election,

they say was rigged.

And then climate activist Greta Thornberg.

Thunberg appears at the Georgian opposition protests in Tbilisi.

I mentioned that because I believe Greta Thunberg is a celebrity

protester in Europe. And this suggests some level of production, promotion, is something at the scale of a Hollywood movie.

However, Anatole, the election in Tbilisi, you have presented the case that these are early days for democracy in Georgia,

and asking it to be a full member of the OSCE with free and fair elections unencumbered by

shenanigans is a bridge too far. Is that something that the European Union and or NATO

are taking into account because this looks disruptive

right now these protests?

Well, I don't think that the European Union or NATO have frankly given much serious thought

to Georgia.

You know, NATO holds open the door theoretically to Georgian membership, but as in the case of Ukraine,

there is no actual plan whatsoever to bring Georgia in, nor indeed can there be, as long as,

you know, Georgia is divided, partitioned, and that there are frozen conflicts on its territory

with the, you know, the separatist

...