UK, EU Chastise Georgia for Alleged Democratic Backsliding in Advance of Key Poll

The UK has suspended scheduled security talks with Georgia, a small country in the South Caucasus region, citing concerns over alleged democratic backsliding and anti-Western rhetoric by the ruling Georgian Dream party. “For the first time in ten years since we started our bilateral Wardrop Dialogue, we on the UK side decided to freeze these ministerial talks,” Gareth Ward, London’s envoy to Tbilisi, said in an exclusive interview published by Georgia’s InterPress news agency on Oct. 15. “We have not held our planned Defense Staff talks, and we have paused new cybersecurity programming.” The UK ambassador attributed the move to a series of recent actions by Georgian Dream that critics claim are anti-democratic....