“We are basically playing by the rules, whereas Moscow is not,” says Foreign Affairs Correspondent for Die Zeit magazine Michael Thumann, summing up the European Union’s reluctance to take a strong stance on the crackdown against pro-EU protests in Georgia. Thousands of mainly young people have taken to the streets of the capital Tbilisi for more than two weeks against the newly reelected “Georgian Dream” government’s plans to withdraw from the EU accession process. Thumann sees “exactly the same playbook we have seen in 2014, in Ukraine." Former Georgian Ambassador to London, Giorgi Badridze, sees miscalculations by Europe when it comes to competing against Russia for influence in Georgia, pointing out the EU’s reluctance to call for a rerun of October’s parliamentary elections. "It looks like, traditionally, Russia understood the value of Georgia to the European Union better than many European countries themselves.”  DW’s Chief Political Editor Michaela Küfner hosts this edition of Berlin Briefing.

 

Key points include:

1. Are Georgians defending Europe against Russia?
2. Will NATO stick up for non-member Georgia?
3. Will the violence against Georgian protesters stop?
4. What do a billionaire and a zebra have to do with it?
5. Can soccer players qualify as politicians?