The Rooms Hotel in downtown Tbilisi has served as a headquarters for my week-long research project examining Russian political warfare and destabilization tactics in Georgia, but it has also come to represent much more than just a place to sleep. The hotel - just like the challenges facing Georgia today - reflects a world of contradiction once I scratched below the surface of this small and charming country.
When I first walked into the Rooms Hotel, I was struck by the decor which is filled with hundreds of Western books covering nearly every wall in the lobby. Everything from breakfast in the morning to the furniture in the rooms and the rustic-industrial architecture is a mix of European modernity with some traditional Georgian elements.
The hotel, and Tbilisi itself, is undoubtedly geared towards attracting sophisticated, urbane, and international visitors who could easily be on business or vacation in any progressive, youthful city in the world. Yet, it was only a matter of hours after arriving in Tbilisi when I was getting coffee a former Georgian government official, and current pro-Western civil society leader, that I learned that the hotel was once the Soviet Union’s central propaganda printing house used to disseminate disinformation against European and democratic ideals.
After nearly a week in Georgia speaking to anti-corruption civil society groups, current and former government officials, and academics, I realized that once I scratched just below the surface, I found a world of contradiction between a modern, European-oriented democracy on the one hand, and the troubling reality of a country struggling to hold on to its free, fair, and transparent institutions on the other.
As I probed policymakers and civil society leaders for an accurate assessment of Georgia’s capabilities to manage Russia’s strategic campaign which aims to spread chaos and disinformation throughout the country, a consistent and troubling narrative surfaced time and time again. Each conversation revealed complex contradictions between Georgia’s ability to unite and confront this threat through its aspirations to join the European and North Atlantic community, and a trend toward partisan power consolidation by the ruling political party, illiberal and anti-pluralistic institutional reforms, and pervasive economic and political corruption lying just below the surface.
After adding up all of my conversations I’m left with the impression of a country desperately trying, and in some cases succeeding, in moving towards a mature democratic country with the capabilities to defend itself against Russia’s political warfare campaign. Yet, just like the legacy of the Rooms Hotel as a Soviet hub for disinformation, remnants of Georgia’s non-democratic past and deep historical ties to Russia always seem to lie just below the surface.
-- Andrew G., Cohort 4