Researchers Swante E. Cornell and Stephen Frederick Starr, who call themselves friends of Georgia, sent a letter to the US high-ranking officials and the members of Congress. The authors wrote that they have been connected with this country since the 1990s and have cooperated with three very different governments of Georgia.

Both scholars are famous for their research on the post-Soviet period. Svante E. Corell has written about Georgia, separatism, and ethnopolitical conflicts, and in 2009 co-authored the book titled “The Guns of August 2008: Russia”s War in Georgia” with Stephen Frederick Starr. The latter was an adviser on Russian and Soviet Union issues to three US presidents. He has founded and still heads the Central Asia and Caucasus Institute. Starr is the author and editor of about 200 articles and 20 books on Russia and Eurasia.

The two authors emphasized that they have never taken anyone’s side in Georgian politics, nor do they now. “We have consistently supported the aspiration of the Georgian people to restore territorial integrity, aspiration to Europe and integration into the Euro-Atlantic world," they wrote in the letter.

The scholars offer the addressees their own opinions about the measures that the US should implement to develop a pertinent policy to stop Georgia’s turn from the Western course and correct the situation in the country.

“The main problem that requires US action is that the richest man in Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili, an oligarch who amassed his wealth in Russia, where he lived for a long time, has seized power in the state and is turning Georgia in an anti-Western direction, despite the fact that the people of Georgia have expressed Allowing Western integration. This can have irreversible consequences," Cornell and Starr emphasized. According to them, the current trajectory of Georgia's development is unstable, and there is a danger that Georgia will end up in chaos “because the gap between Ivanishvili's ambitions and the will of the Georgian society is growing."

According to Cornell and Starr, the current political developments in the country threaten all the successes that Georgia has achieved in the last two decades, as well as vital US interests in the strategic region that connects the NATO area with Central Asia. “The current war in Ukraine will be very lame, but Moscow still has the possibilities of political and military intervention in Georgia, even in order to divert attention from all the failures in Ukraine. This will significantly weaken the West's attempt to connect Europe with Asia and the Middle East by bypassing Russia,” the authors of the letter shared their opinion with US officials and Congress.

“What should the US do?” – in the subsection of the letter, Swedish and American scholars highlight several key issues: the 2024 elections must be held fairly; the fate of the former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, who is in prison; Ivanishvili's dominance in Georgian politics; and further integration of Georgia into Euro-Atlantic structures.

The US must demand a fair election process now as it has done before. As for Saakashvili, Cornell, and Starry advise the US authorities to more actively request the transfer of the former president to a medical facility in a European country and to make this request a condition for normal relations between the US and Georgia.

When applying these measures to the Georgian government, the US must clearly show the Georgian government and society that it is an unwavering supporter of Georgia's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the country’s European future.

How should the US implement this policy? The authors of the letter answer this question as follows: “In 2003, during the election crisis in Georgia, President Bush appointed former Secretary of State James Baker as the “President’s Envoy” to Georgia and sent him to Tbilisi to resolve the intractable situation that arose after the elections. President Biden should appoint a high-ranking American official and send him to Georgia with a similar mission," Cornell and Starr believe.