An expert has predicted the country Russia could invade next if Vladimir Putin wins his bloody war in Ukraine, now approaching six months since its outbreak.
Tina Khidasheli, a politician in Georgia, said her home country would likely be next if Putin's stalling forces were to somehow triumph.
In a piece for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, a liberal nonprofit, Khidasheli said Russia's mission "will not stop" in Ukraine.
She said: "The power-hungry Putin will not stop after a victory in Ukraine. Georgia and Moldova are too small for him and his ambitions.
"These reach, as is also clear from the ultimatum sent by Putin in December, all the way to the Eastern European NATO member states."
The ultimatum Georgia's first ever female defence minister referred to is one issued by Putin that called for an end to NATO activity in Eastern European countries that border Russia.
NATO rules state that an attack on one member state is considered an act of war on all of its members.
Ms Khidasheli continued: "For Vladimir Putin, failure in this war is predetermined. He will suffer defeat either today in Ukraine, if the West offers more active and radical help, or tomorrow on the territory of NATO.
"Where or at what cost the defeat will come is only in the hands of NATO and the allies of Ukraine and Georgia."
Putin himself published a study in 2021 titled "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" that claimed Russia and Ukraine were "one people."
Georgia also has close cultural ties with Russia and is a former Soviet state.
Some fear Putin will apply the same logic to the country he first invaded in 2008.
Since, while already controlling the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Putin's troops have encroached on Georgian territory inch by inch.
The invasion, the politician believes, was to stop Georgia from joining NATO, which it is still not a member of.
Ms Khidasheli continued: "The occupation of 20% of Georgia's territory was not only a political act for recognising the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but the consequent fulfilment of two very important tasks - both ensuring the stationing of Russian military not far from the NATO border and obstructing Georgia's accession to NATO."
Any invasion of Georgia's full territory could depend on if Putin becomes locked in the bloody war in Ukraine for years to come, or manages to win despite heavy troop losses.
Ukrainian politician Inna Sovsun said she believes the war will drag on for much longer than expected.
"A defeated Putin is not expected to attack Georgia. But should he decide to do so in his last breath, Georgia has a more realistic chance of pushing back a Russia that has been defeated in Ukraine," she wrote.
A top Kremlin official and former President Dmitry Medvedev claimed he was hacked in a recent social media post that read Russia "will go on the next campaign to restore the borders of our homeland".
Claiming a reunification of the territory of the old Soviet Union through the invasion of Georgia and Kazakhstan, the post said: "All the peoples who once lived in the great and mighty Soviet Union will once again live together in friendship and mutual understanding."
"Now the same story is repeating itself. North and South Ossetia, Abkhazia and the remaining territory of Georgia can be united only as a single state with Russia.
"Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, 62.5 per cent of the population of northern Kazakhstan were Slavs. Kazakhstan is an artificial state.
Once considered the face of a more liberal approach from Russia, the former president who held office from 2008 to 2012 said in a Telegram post that people who oppose Russia are "b******s".
It was unclear if the current Deputy Chairman of the Security Council meant certain politicians in the West when he said: "I'm often asked why my Telegram posts are so harsh. The answer is that I hate them. They are bastards and degenerates.
"They want our death, that of Russia. As long as I am alive, I will do everything to make them disappear."
