#WTH Russia Eyes Georgia Next. David Kramer Explains
What the Hell Is Going On
AEI Podcasts
4.4 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 20 June 2024
⏱️ 43 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Georgia’s parliament in Tbilisi recently overrode a presidential veto on a “foreign agents” law that sparked an uproar domestically and from the country’s Western allies. Critics decried the legislation—which requires any organization receiving more than 20% of its funding from foreign sources to register as an “agent of foreign influence”—as yet another element in the Russian takeover of the small South Caucasian nation. Russia still occupies 20% of Georgia’s territory. Why should Americans care about Russian games in a country of 3 million people? Because for Vladimir Putin, Georgia is just the beginning of his ambitions in Europe. And the Georgian people are among the most pro-American in the region, at one point the second largest troop contributor to our war on al Qaeda. Standing up for Georgia now means avoiding conflict later.
David Kramer serves as the Executive Director of the George W. Bush Institute. Prior to joining the Bush Institute, he taught at Florida International University’s Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, and served as an Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs. David chairs the board of the Free Russia Foundation and serves on the board of the International Republican Institute.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute. |
| 0:03.0 | If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. Thanks for listening. Here's our show. What the hell's going on? What the hell is going on? What the hell is going on? I don't know what the hell is talking about. You don't have to know what the hell is on it. What hell's the matter with these guys? We don't know what's going on. What hell's going on? |
| 0:01.1 | Who in God's name knows what it's all about. |
| 0:29.4 | Hi, I'm Danielle Pletka. |
| 0:31.0 | And I'm Mark Tiesin. |
| 0:32.5 | Welcome to our podcast. |
| 0:33.8 | What the hell is going on? |
| 0:35.8 | Mark, what the hell is going on? What the hell is going on was talking, what the hell is going on? |
| 0:37.8 | What the hell is going on? |
| 0:38.6 | Was talking about Georgia. |
| 0:40.3 | And I don't mean... |
| 0:41.3 | Georgia is on your mind? |
| 0:43.3 | And not that Georgia. |
| 0:45.1 | We're talking about the Georgia in Europe, the Georgia that is under threat from Putin's Russia again. |
| 0:52.1 | And, you know, a lot of our listeners probably aren't following |
| 0:54.9 | what's happening in Georgia, but the Putin regime is undermining democracy from within, as you |
| 1:00.8 | might expect. And this, look, Georgia is a country. I know a little bit about Georgia because I |
| 1:05.6 | traveled there with George W. Bush in 2008. I wrote the speech he gave in the, in Freedom Square, |
| 1:10.3 | and Tbilisi. And it was a |
| 1:12.6 | great democratic development of the post-cold war era. This is a country that's incredibly |
| 1:18.8 | pro-American, strong democracy in the in the region. They sent troops to Afghanistan. They sent |
| 1:24.7 | troops to Iraq. They are, you know, these are just good guys |
... |
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