Russia’s geographic interests in Georgia

For Russia, Georgia represents a crucial segment of the North-South transport corridor (connecting Russia, Transcaucasia, Iran, India, and Sri Lanka).

Without Georgia, Russia loses its leverage over the corridor – no chance to obstruct or intimidate.

This is also key for influencing India, by the way.

Plus, Georgia provides partial control over Azerbaijan and Türkiye. For example, the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline runs through Georgia. In short, Georgia can disrupt a lot for this alliance.

Another point: with Georgia under Russian control, Armenia would be geographically trapped, left with no path to distance itself from Moscow.

All of this is to highlight the complexity of Russian-Georgian relations.

Source

About the author: Vadym Denysenko, political scientist.

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.