Just two days after the war in Ukraine began, the first calls emerged demanding that Georgia open a “second front” against Russia and enter the armed conflict directly. Speaker of the Georgian Parliament writes this on his Facebook page.

“Cynical and provocative appeals rang out from Kyiv: “Georgians, the weather is lovely, perhaps you should take a stroll through Tskhinvali and Sukhumi… bring your tanks along… Russia’s arms are short… go on, Georgia, it’s time.

What followed was a campaign of manufactured shame directed at Georgia for refusing to impose sanctions on Russia and declining to mobilise volunteers, accompanied by wishes for the “fire of bombs” and calls to seize the “window of opportunity” created by a Russia supposedly on the brink of defeat.

This campaign was not orchestrated by a mere handful of 5th-column figures. Social media still holds the names and surnames of the 7,000 Georgians who joined the call for a second front and turned it into an instrument of political pressure against Georgia’s government.

Among that 7000-strong army marching against Georgia’s own interests, you will find politicians and NGO workers, journalists and chefs, students and academics.

Since that day, we have encountered these same 7,000 Georgians, waving someone else’s flag, time and again: now as cheerleaders for Molotov cocktails, now as architects of a ‘Nepal scenario,’ and above all, as a persistent source of daily venom and hatred poisoning public life”, - writes Shalva Papuashvili.