Freedom is arguably the one thing that every human craves the most. It is widely thought that mass migration is mainly driven by economic factors. That is largely true, but there are millions of people who make extremely perilous journeys from their homelands to search for freedom elsewhere. Too many people die in too many places fighting for the opportunity to breathe that precious air. That is why I harbor singular disdain for people who enjoy liberty where they live, but then through their words and actions, enable those tyrants who trap and asphyxiate their helpless citizens.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began nearly three years ago, I cannot count the number of people whom I have heard blaming the Ukrainians for provoking Vladimir Putin and precipitating the war. In their telling, the Russians and Ukrainians have always been one people, and by entertaining Ukraine’s NATO membership aspirations, it is America and its allies who sowed the seeds for the present conflict. These people go on to say that the Ukrainians have allowed themselves to be manipulated by the West.

I have never in my life seen more grotesque arrogance than the one these Putin apologists display. Quite clearly, they claim to know Ukrainian history better than the Ukrainians themselves. What they also seem to be saying is that they can determine what is best for the Ukrainians, better than the Ukrainians can decide on their own.

Western societies are nowhere near perfect. But the liberty that ordinary people like me enjoy here is precisely what millions of people everywhere are dying for. For large numbers of citizens of other nations, that freedom trumps everything. That is why both wealthy people and others of modest means from places such as China, Russia, Venezuela, and similar countries that deny their populations some of the most basic freedoms, jump through all kinds of hoops to find homes in free and open societies.

Autocratic rule is akin to storing a gaseous substance under extremely high pressure. Enormous effort has to be expended to prevent the gas from escaping. But it eventually does, always. That is what I witnessed in cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg in late 1991. I had spent the previous six years in the country as a foreign student and was preparing to return to my homeland when the borders were thrown open with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Throngs of Soviet citizens dashed to Western embassies in the major cities for visas to escape to the very countries that their leaders had spent decades portraying as swamps of evil. Those arrogant people who are insulting the intelligence of Ukrainians today would probably have asked those Soviet émigrés of 1991 to stay in that pressure cooker because it was better for them.

In the last few days, I have been wondering what these exemplars of superciliousness think of the events in Tbilisi. Tbilisi is the capital Georgia, which used to be one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union. Like Ukraine, it became an independent country in 1991. Since then, Georgians have desperately sought to rid themselves of the yoke that they were under for seven decades. The best way to achieve that goal, in the collective view of the Georgian people, is to join the E.U. In a December 2023 poll conducted by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) of Georgia, 79 percent of the population expressed support for E.U. membership.

Enshrined in the Georgian constitution is a provision that spells out the people’s wish for their nation to become fully integrated into the E.U. and NATO. The country had been working quietly behind the scenes to lay the groundwork for over a decade now. But in March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Georgia formally submitted its application to join the E.U. The people didn’t want to wait any longer and risk becoming the next Ukraine.

Even though the Russian emperor is bogged down in Ukraine, he has still managed to spread his tentacles into Georgia. The pro-Kremlin Georgian Dream party, which controls the national parliament, has used the familiar authoritarian playbook to thwart Georgia’s aspiration to become a free and open society. Following the country’s disputed parliamentary election in October, the opposition has boycotted the legislature. And last week, Georgian Dream party member Irakli Kobakhidze, who was reappointed as prime minister, announced the suspension of the country’s E.U. accession talks until the end of 2028.

The prime minister’s decision has infuriated Georgians. Hundreds of thousands of them have been protesting in the streets over the last week, with the crowds growing larger with each passing hour. Over 330 protestors have been arrested thus far, with many reported to have been beaten in detention. Salome Zourabichvili, the nation’s popularly elected president who is not affiliated with Georgian Dream, has condemned the prime minister’s pronouncement, accusing the party of steering the country “more and more rapidly into a quasi-Russian model.” She has called on the international community to help champion the aspirations of the Georgian people.

Whenever their pressure cookers malfunction, autocrats point their fingers at the evil hand of America. But the fury on display in the streets of Tbilisi suggests that the Georgians know where the problem truly lies. I hope and pray that the know-it-alls will not start telling them that they are being brainwashed by the West. That would really add insult to injury.