I’ve seen Russia’s aggression while teaching abroad. Ukraine isn’t the only victim | Opinion

As the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine arrives, Americans must recognize Russia’s imperial ambitions in the region and ask our leaders to support policies that limit Russian influence and shore up post-Soviet democracies. One of those young democracies is the small nation of Georgia, where I am teaching as a Fulbright scholar.

Like Ukraine, Georgia has been the victim of Russian expansionism, and two areas of the country are currently occupied by Russia: Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast, and the central Tskhinvali Region, sometimes called South Ossetia.

Geographically, Georgia is similar to Washington state: it has high mountains, a sea coast in the west, and a wine-producing region in the east. On a recent drive past the occupied Tskhinvali Region, a Georgian friend pointed out several places in the distance that he used to visit, including the beautiful Ksani Valley, where a river winds its way from the Greater Caucasus Mountains into the Kartli Plain. Since 2008, Georgians have not been able to visit this valley.

As an avid hiker in the Pacific Northwest, I sympathize profoundly with this territorial loss. Imagine if the Olympic peninsula were occupied by a foreign power, and Americans could no longer hike into Enchanted Valley or stroll along Ruby Beach. Now imagine what that loss would mean to members of the Quinault Indian Nation or the Quileute Tribe, who have been living in those areas for thousands of years. If you can picture that, you might begin to understand what Georgians have lost with the Russian occupation.

Russians have long taken a proprietary view of Georgia, and for nearly two centuries the country was controlled by the Russian state — first as a part of the Russian Empire, and then, after a brief independence, as one of the 15 republics in the Soviet Union. Russian writers and artists have found Georgia particularly alluring. Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s most revered poet, described Georgia this way when he crossed the pass into the country near Mount Kazbegi in 1829:

“The instant transition from awe-inspiring Caucasus to pretty Georgia is enchanting. The air of the South suddenly begins to waft over the traveller... Bright valleys, watered by the cheerful Aragva, replaced those gloomy defiles and the menacing Terek. Instead of bare cliffs I saw green hills all around and fruit trees.” (Translated by Ronald Wilks)

Like Pushkin, Russians today are still coming into Georgia over that mountain pass. Between the first wave of anti-war émigrés last spring and the second wave of draft dodgers in the fall, hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens have entered the country, which has a population of just 3.7 million. While this influx of Russians may have contributed to economic growth, it has driven up local rents and other costs

In some places, such as in Tbilisi’s sulfur baths and on the streets of downtown Batumi, I hear Russian spoken more than Georgian. Yet when I ask my Georgian students whether any of them speak Russian, as I do, they reply, “We try not to.” Businesses in Tbilisi fly Ukrainian flags and display pro-Ukraine messages, and the city is covered with graffiti telling Russians to “go home” and calling Putin a war criminal.

Many Georgians believe their government has been too accommodating to their neighbor to the north. The ruling party, Georgian Dream, was founded and financed by Bidzina Ivanishvili, an oligarch with close ties to Russia. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Georgia has enforced some sanctions against Russia, such as stopping all flights, but it continues to allow goods to be trucked through its territory from Turkey to Russia and it has placed no new restrictions on Russian citizens entering the country

Last April, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Georgia Support Act (H.R. 923), which would impose sanctions on those responsible for human rights violations in the occupied regions and require updates from the State Department on American initiatives to support democracy in the country. All 10 representatives from the state of Washington voted for the bill, but when it was referred to the Senate, it never left the Committee on Foreign Relations. To help ensure a stable future for Georgia, this bill should be reintroduced by the House in the current session.

Nineteenth-century Georgian poet Ilia Chavchavadze, for whom the university where I teach is named, saw a bright future for his country and wrote these lines in his 1861 poem “Spring”:

There’s new growth in the gardens now;

The peaks the grassiest I’ve seen.

So when are you, my mother land

going to be green? (Translated by Lyn Coffin)

In the 32 years since it declared independence from the Soviet Union, Georgia has begun to flourish, and I hope it keeps flourishing. The United States should continue to support Ukraine, Georgia and other post-Soviet nations in building peace and democracy, maintaining sovereignty over their own lands, and rooting out corruption and Russian meddling

Just as Ukraine deserves to have its borders intact, so does Georgia.

If Russia achieves even a partial victory in Ukraine, where will it turn next?

Jamie Olson is a Professor of English at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey. Since October, he has been teaching American literature at Ilia State University in Tbilisi as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar.