Eli Lake, Columnist

Georgia Is Biden’s First Foreign Policy Crisis

The former Soviet republic is testing the president’s pledge that America will live up to its democratic principles.

February 25, 2021 at 2:15 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Looking for a strong democratic future in Georgia.
Photographer: VANO SHLAMOV/AFP

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President Joe Biden has promised a foreign policy that aligns America’s power with its values. The crisis in the former Soviet republic of Georgia is the administration’s first test of that principle, and so far it is failing.

Long-simmering tensions between the ruling Georgian Dream Party and a coalition of opposition parties boiled over on Tuesday when authorities arrested the leader of the largest opposition faction, Nika Melia. It was a show of force that saw hundreds of police officers raid party headquarters in Tbilisi.