Russia ruled Georgia for more than 200 years, first conquered by the Czarist Russian Empire, later absorbed into the Soviet Union. Over this time, the borders and population of Georgia have been intermittently adjusted, while forced relocations were a regular feature of the Soviet regime. In Soviet times, Georgia was tightly linked to the Kremlin because of Joseph Stalin, a Georgian native from the industrial city of Gori, who grew to be the bloodiest ruler of the USSR. Stalin took special care of Georgia, the only republic that was allowed to maintain its native tongue as the national language, appoint local leaders rather than Kremlin-appointed officials to run regional politics and largely spared of mass collectivism and the famine and poverty associated with it. When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Georgia was quick to declare its independence. Still, it was bound to struggle to hold on to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which every Georgian believes is illegally occupied by Russia. Leading the Rose Revolution in 2004 was Georgia's most pro-Western politician, Mikheil Saakashvili, who wound up serving nine years as president. But in 2008, Saakashvili also decided to try to put an end to separatist challenges in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Russian army sided with the unrecognized republics, and the war was lost in days. Georgia had lost complete control over the territories. Soon after, Saakashvili lost the support of his nation and was replaced by his political rival, an oligarch who had amassed his fortune in Russia, Bidzina Ivanishvili. The bear was back in town. Kyiv and Tbilisi have lived the parallel experiences of pro-democracy movements and Russian aggression. Still, as a high-profile opposition leader, Saakashvili also became involved in the political life of Ukraine, with the aim of strengthening the alliance of the two countries against Russian domination in the region. He became a Ukrainian citizen, actively participated in the pro-democracy movements of 2004 and 2014 in Ukraine; and later became an adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and head of the Odessa regional administration. Yet Saakashvili ended up mired in several political scandals and lost his Ukrainian citizenship. He returned to Georgia in 2021, where he was detained and has been in a prison clinic ever since. Still, over the past 15-plus years, Kyiv and Tbilisi have lived the parallel experiences of pro-democracy movements and the risks of Russian aggression. And so, when full-scale war broke out in Ukraine, Georgians supported the Ukrainians, but the country was ruled by a party that was afraid to speak openly against Putin, let alone help with arms.