[TICKING]
Getting into China is all but impossible for most
Western journalists.
This is the financial and economic capital of China.
But when the US ambassador, Nicholas Burns,
invited us to come for a visit and an interview,
we were granted visas.
Is it our most competitive relationship
in the world right now?
This is the most important, most competitive, and most dangerous
relationship that the United States has in
the world right now and will, I think, for the next decade
or so.
[TICKING]
What happens if Vladimir Putin enters another country
besides Ukraine by force?
He already has.
15 years ago, Russia invaded neighboring Georgia.
It has military stationed there and controls 20% of the country.
What's next?
The Russians are buying apartments here
in every 33 minutes, and they're registering
a business in every 26 minutes.
So we are on the brink of a very dangerous situation
here in Georgia.
[TICKING]
I'm Lesley Stahl.
I'm Bill Whitaker.
I'm Anderson Cooper.
I'm Sharyn Alfonsi.
I'm Jon Wertheim.
I'm Cecilia Vega.
I'm Scott Pelley.
Those stories tonight on 60 Minutes.
[TICKING]
American CEOs used to swoon over China.
Its vast pool of consumers has been
a magnetic draw for decades.
But doing business there has become so fraught and risky,
with intellectual property theft and an expanded espionage law
used to intimidate the business community,
that US companies have pressed the pause button.
On top of that, the US-China relationship
has become contentious due partly
to China's belligerent activity toward Taiwan
and in the South China Sea, the balloon spy
incident of last year, and the list goes on.
Making matters worse, the Chinese economy has hit a wall.
Export growth is slowing.
The country's drowning in debt, and youth unemployment
has soared.
Getting into China to tell that story
is all but impossible for most Western journalists.
But as we first reported in February,
when the US ambassador, Nicholas Burns,
invited us to come for a visit and an interview,
we were granted visas.
We spoke with him at his residence in Beijing.
More money is leaving China for the first time in 40 years
than is coming in from American, Japanese, European,
Korean investors.
Now, why is that and how much of a problem is that for them?
That's a real problem for this economy.
They have 1.4 billion people here.
They've got to keep it growing, and foreign capital
is important.
You ask why.
I think there's been a contradiction
in the messaging from the government here in China
to the rest of the world.
On the one hand, they say, we're open for business.
We want American, Japanese businesses here.
But on the other hand, they've raided
six or seven American businesses since last March.
Raided?
Raided.
You mean--
They've gone into American companies
and shut them down and made accusations we believe
are very much unwarranted.
The American companies include Bain and Company and the Minsk
group, a company that does due diligence for other companies
that might want to invest here was raided last year.
Five of its Chinese employees were taken into custody,
and they're still there.
Another firm, Cat Vision, was raided.
Lest the message wasn't loud and clear, a report about it
was put on state-run television.
It accused Western consulting firms
of espionage and stealing national security and military
secrets.
They want the investment to come back,
and they're raiding American companies, and they're--
Yes.
They've passed an amendment to their counter-espionage law.
And it's written in such a general way
that it could be that American businesspeople could be accused
of espionage for engaging in practices that are perfectly
legal and acceptable everywhere else in the world,
collecting data to do due diligence so that you can decide
whether you want to invest in a company or form a joint venture.
Right?
What do you think the Chinese are
afraid that these companies are going to find out,
these due diligence companies?
What are they worrying about?
I think they want to control data about the Chinese people,
about Chinese companies.
And so that, I think, is at the heart
of the problem with those American companies
operating in that sphere.
Ambassador Burns told us that's just one
of the concerns he hears about.
There is still intellectual property theft
from American companies here.
Is every American company afraid of that?
Yes.
All kinds of US companies began flocking to China in the early
1980s after the country opened to the West under then-leader
Deng Xiaoping.
[BELL TOLLING]
And now US banks operate here.
Walmart has nearly 300 stores across the country.
Shoppers here in Shanghai can buy Levi's, browse
in an Apple store, and get a caramel frappuccino.
Starbucks has 6,000 stores in China, 1,000 stores in Shanghai,
and they want to keep building because coffee--
this was a tea culture for hundreds of years.
Right, yeah.
It's now becoming, at least with the young Chinese, a coffee
culture.
And they love Starbucks?
They love Starbucks.
And I'll buy you a cappuccino.
I'll take one.
Thank you.
[LAUGHTER]
Boeing's here.
So is Tesla, Pfizer, Chevron, Intel.
But while some businesses are thriving,
many of the foreign companies are
worried about the business climate
under President Xi Jinping.
If you track China from the death of Mao
to the opening of China to the world,
we've seen a closing of sorts.
We've seen a centralization of power of the party.
We've seen increased repression of the people of China here.
That's a very significant trend just over the last decade.
With Xi?
Under his leadership.
Part of that trend includes President Xi's
reversing many of the market reforms
that unleashed China's economic miracle.
They've been growing over 40 years, the fastest growth
rate in recorded economic history,
8%, 9%, 10%, 11% growth rates.
They've lifted 800 million people out of poverty.
But what's happening is that growth rate is slowing down.
Most economists are now projecting
they'll be at 2%, 3%, 4% growth, maybe even
lower in the next decade.
Can they support their society if it's that low?
That's going to be difficult for them.
If there was so much explosive growth,
if so many people were lifted out of poverty,
why is he turning away from what worked?
Well, I think they've got maybe competing priorities.
The government here in China certainly
wants the economy to grow, but they also
have a national security mindset.
They want to control data.
They want to--
But that's more important, the control, right,
than economic growth?
It seems that way.
I think it's open for debate.
You're hearing-- we are hearing both messages.
It sounds as if you yourself don't know the direction
it's going.
What I perceive here is that the greater energy
is with those on the national security side
of the government of China.
Good morning.
How are you?
On a train trip from Beijing to Shanghai,
the ambassador pointed out that in the decades
before President Xi, China powered its economy
by investing in these high-speed trains, roads, factories,
and skyscrapers that light up Shanghai,
the financial capital of China.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
But under President Xi, China lost more than $120 billion
worth of long-term foreign investments
last year because of the weakening economy
and the harsh government tactics which
have left American companies uncertain of the future there.
There are a lot of American companies here.
Have a lot of them just picked up
and left because of this current business environment?
You know, that's interesting.
Not many.
Why not?
China is the second-largest economy in the world.
It's a big market.
So a few American companies have left, but most have stayed.
Some American companies are moving at least some
of their operations to Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico.
But they're not leaving China?
They don't want to leave.
The market's so irresistible to American business people.
It's gigantic.
Maybe they're not leaving, but they're not investing.
They're not making major investments
until they can see exactly where the government is headed.
Yet because of the 1.4 billion potential consumers,
some companies like Disney are increasing their investment.
Welcome to Shanghai Disney Resort.
It recently expanded its Shanghai Disneyland
that they told us is thriving.
Aptar, a $9 billion company headquartered
in Crystal Lake, Illinois, is another American firm bucking
the trend of capital flight.
President of Aptar Asia, Xiangwei Gong, a Chinese-born US
citizen, showed us around one of their five manufacturing sites
in China.
We are manufacturing for some of the largest US brands, actually,
the US consumer brands.
This factory makes the packaging and dispensing devices for food,
pharmaceutical, and beauty products sold in Asia.
All our customers, like P&G, L'Oréal, Estée Lauder,
they are all here doing business.
Aptar, in China for nearly 30 years,
recently invested $60 million in a new factory.
Xiangwei Gong says even in a slowing economy,
the company is doing well.
American companies here, as the ambassador well knows,
are pausing or cutting back on investment, but not this firm.
You're expanding.
Well, because we are here for the long term,
and we believe in the consumption power of the rising
middle class.
It's 1.4 billion people here.
And imagine, for example, health care,
and the same with cosmetics, and beauty, and beverage,
all those sectors, packaged foods,
these are really the biggest markets.
And so we are very confident about the long term.
What does it say about the confidence really
in the US-China relationship?
It seems to say you believe that things will what?
I'm asking, get better?
[LAUGHS] That's a great question for the ambassador.
I believe so.
I hope so.
You know, we'll see.
Actually, Burns says he's wary of the future,
as the fundamental rivalry and mistrust between the US
and China is shaking the confidence of the business world
and has pushed our relationship to its lowest
point in half a century.
Is it our most competitive relationship
in the world right now?
This is the most important, most competitive, and most dangerous
relationship that the United States has in
the world right now and will, I think, for the next decade
or so.
I want to quote you back to you and tell us what you meant.
You have said, divorce is not an option.
Right.
Our two countries have to live together.
And this, I think, is the greatest tension
in the US-China relationship.
China's our most significant competitor.
And at the same time, China is our third-largest trade partner,
750,000 American jobs at stake.
Agriculture-- China is the largest market
for US agriculture.
1/5 of all of our export products from agriculture are
sent to China.
That was $40.9 billion last year.
So we can't afford really to have a real break here.
Well, it's complicated.
All those jobs would--
It's complicated.
Some people are saying, well, we're so competitive with China,
we should end the economic relationship.
Well, the consequence of that would be 750,000 American
families wouldn't be able to put dinner on the table.
And so, this makes for an extraordinarily difficult
balancing act in my job.
You're a Wallenda Brother.
I've never thought of myself that way.
[LAUGHS] But you're up on that tightrope.
But highwire, right?
Well, we have competing interests here.
And balancing those interests is the reality
in the US-China relationship.
We're going to compete.
We have to compete responsibly and keep
the peace between our countries, but we also have to engage.
More about the balancing act and the biggest economic problem
in China today when we come back.
[TICKING]
One in every five people in the world is Chinese.
China's population is four times that of the US.
And the country is vast--
3.7 million square miles.
It overlooks the Taiwan Strait, where half the world's
trade flows every day, and is located about 100 miles away
from Taiwan.
President Xi likes to say that the East is rising,
the West is declining.
But economically, the US is thriving compared to China.
In December, Moody's, the credit rating agency,
cut its outlook for China to negative,
and it's facing a long-term demographic bind, a decline
in the birth rate that experts say is irreversible,
meaning the country is both aging and shrinking.
Ambassador Nicholas Burns took us on a tour
starting in Beijing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The ambassador and his wife, Libby,
like to take early morning walks through a park
near their residence.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING IN CHINESE]
This is a 600-year-old Ming Dynasty park called Ritan Park.
It's a place for a lot of retirees
and a lot of young people, and it's tremendously active.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It's where the locals come for their early morning routines,
like Tai Chi, yo-yoing, and ping pong.
Oops.
[SPEAKING CHINESE]
[LAUGHTER]
[SPEAKING CHINESE]
You couldn't tell from these scenes--
Whoa!
--that China, where the COVID pandemic began,
is still emerging from the trauma of President Xi Jinping's
oppressive zero-COVID policy.
Burns, 68, a career diplomat, who
has served in both Republican and Democratic administrations,
got to China at the height of the zero-COVID lockdowns
and quarantines.
When my wife Libby and I arrived here in early March of 2022,
we were quarantined in this house for 21 days,
for three weeks.
Shanghai, a city of 26 million people,
was completely locked down for 63 days.
What was that like in the city?
Well, we had women who needed to give birth,
and we had to find a way to get them to the hospital.
We had Americans who wanted to get out
but had to find a way out of their locked compounds
to the airport.
So zero-COVID worked for a while.
In '20 and '21 they had very low or relatively lower
infection rates.
But by 2022, it had really divided this society.
[SHOUTING AND HONKING]
It set off rare widespread protests.
Then in December of 2022, President Xi
ended the policy abruptly.
The last thing this government is going to accept here
is volatility.
Volatility is something Joerg Wuttke, a German businessman,
who's lived and worked in China for over 30 years,
hadn't seen since the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989.
He represents BASF, the world's largest chemical producer.
You have said this is a PTSD country, post traumatic stress
disorder country.
What do you mean?
Well, everybody has been traumatized
by the lockdowns that took place in many cities across China.
And the kind of messaging that came out of the leadership is,
for your own safety.
And then the lockdown was lifted.
Actually, it was more a capitulation
from the government.
The lockdown basically left and like a tsunami--
They said, we were wrong, we're going to lift it?
They never said they were wrong.
That's not the system to admit that they did something wrong.
And then you basically, like a tsunami,
COVID was rolling across the country.
After they lifted it?
December, January, I would say a billion people were infected
and, certainly, lots of people died.
Independent analysts say that an estimated 1.4 million people
died.
This kind of environment really changes your attitude
towards life.
And in business, we thought we're
going to have a comeback story.
And we had a good couple of weeks.
And then the economy basically has been flat since.
After COVID, in the West, in the United States
particularly, we did have a huge quick rebound.
Why didn't it happen here?
Well, I think that COVID also has covered up
a couple of long-term problems that China
has been building up, for example, in the real estate
sector.
We reported on the real estate sector 10 years ago,
with astonishing sights like this--
[BARK]
--of empty buildings in city after city across the country.
This is today.
Similar hollowed-out wastelands of
unoccupied and unfinished apartments
known as ghost cities.
When I was here 10 years ago, I never
expected to see these buildings still here.
[LAUGHS] Yeah.
What was a housing bubble back then grew and finally exploded.
This real estate crisis lies at the heart
of China's economic decline.
Has anybody counted up the number of empty units, I mean,
across the whole country?
Well, the whole of Germany, we have 82 million people,
could move in here right away.
80 to 90 million apartments are empty.
Yes, at least.
Right.
Unfinished.
Over the years, Chinese banks readily
loaned money to the developers as the building boom
created millions of jobs and propelled China's growth.
But in 2020, the government under President Xi
clamped down on the rampant borrowing,
causing the major developers to default on their loans
and run out of money.
Look at that.
The facade isn't even finished.
Yeah.
He says they couldn't even afford to take down the cranes.
In January, Evergrande, once China's largest developer,
was ordered to liquidate its remaining assets.
Left in the lurch are millions of Chinese citizens
who bought these apartments before they were built.
The developers owe their customers.
They paid up to the magnitude of $1 trillion USD.
So if I did a down payment--
Yes.
--on one of these apartments--
Right.
--will I ever see that money?
No, you will not see the money.
It's gone.
It's vanished.
It's gone.
It's finished.
So I mean, it's really dramatic.
10 years ago, we were told that this
was the way people put money down for their nest egg--
Right.
--for their retirement fund.
Yes.
Is that still the case?
66%, 2/3 of a family household average wealth is
in an apartment.
That loss of wealth has depressed consumer spending
and dragged down the economy.
We wondered if the people blame President Xi for that
or for the COVID deaths, but it was impossible
for us to gauge public opinion or if it even matters.
While no one from the government would give us an interview,
we were able to learn, as Joerg Wuttke, who's
lived here for 30 years, told us,
it's not a good idea to bet against the Chinese people.
What are some of the positive aspects of the economy here?
They do have a strong manufacturing base still.
Well, the big part is really between the ears of people,
the brains of the Chinese entrepreneurs that actually
made this success story happen.
China is not really good in basic research,
but they are fantastic in developing.
They're world champion in actually making products
better, faster, and cheaper.
Are they better?
Yes, they are in some areas.
Our Chinese competitors are breathing down our neck
and basically drive some of us out of the market.
For instance, China now makes over 80% of all the solar panels
in the world.
It dominates the wind turbine market
and last year became the world's biggest exporter
of cars and more.
They're the leading trade partner
of twice as many countries in the world as the United States.
So they have global reach.
They're the leading trade partner?
With over 60 countries in the world.
And now, with heavy government subsidies--
[HONK]
--it is fast becoming a leader in electric vehicles.
The car maker BYD, is vying with Tesla
for the title of best-selling EV maker in the world.
Shanghai-based NIO is trying to break through
with high-tech innovations.
In December, the company unveiled a new battery
with a driving range of 620 miles,
more than 200 miles further than Tesla's top-end model.
This is nice.
This is our flagship.
William Li, the CEO and founder of NIO,
says its battery swap technology allows owners to swap out
their depleted battery for a fully charged one
in under three minutes.
Exactly it's a 2.5 minutes.
2.5 minutes?
[LAUGHS] 2.5, yes.
We already installed 2,200 swap stations all around China.
Shanghai, [INAUDIBLE].
China is also developing a humanoid robot industry.
Look at that.
After lots of year, it's coming true.
Alex Gu is the founder and CEO of Fourier Intelligence.
Hi there.
Last year he launched the GR-1, his first generation humanoid.
We can do arm.
You can swing the arm.
Yeah, you see?
Oh, look at the fingers.
Oh my word.
Can he play the piano?
[LAUGHS]
Yeah, future, definitely can.
In the future.
[LAUGHS]
Also in the future, he says, the robots
could provide health care for China's rapidly aging
population.
Maybe we can, for example, we can remote
control such kind of robots to help my grandpa, [LAUGHS]
for example.
Yeah, I think.
Yeah.
President Xi, who visited this company last year,
has called for the mass production of humanoids by 2025.
[SPEAKING CHINESE]
In his annual New Year's speech, he
talked about the country's economic woes
and, for the first time, acknowledged
the high unemployment rate.
Still, he has laid out a long-term goal
of doubling China's economy by 2035
and surpassing the West in technology.
Our companies and tech experts are
competing on AI, and biotech, and quantum mathematics.
All those technological advances will
lead to a new generation of military technology.
Our two militaries are vying for military supremacy.
Who's going to be the most powerful
in the most important strategic part of the world, which
is the Indo-Pacific.
Presidents Biden and Xi met in San Francisco in November
in hopes of reestablishing military communications
between our two countries, which China had cut off.
I think we're back to a more settled and stable relationship
between the two countries.
But it's been a roller coaster.
The low point, he says, was the spy balloon incident last year.
But there's also been the buildup
of military bases in the South China sea,
the increase of air sorties near Taiwan,
and the buzzing of US military planes.
Do you see a lowering of the temperature in the South China
Sea?
No, and that's a problem.
You don't?
And then in Taiwan, following Speaker Pelosi's visit,
we've seen now for 16 months a much higher rate of Chinese
both air activity and naval activity,
that's very intimidating, meant to intimidate.
And that hasn't--
--the Taiwan authorities.
They haven't pulled back on that?
They haven't pulled back on that.
And I think, ultimately, they want to become and overtake
the United States as the dominant country globally.
And we don't want that to happen.
We don't want to live in a world where the Chinese are
the dominant country.
When the Cold War ended, we all thought our system had won.
Yeah.
Their system failed, our system rose up.
Now he's come back and said, no, no, the communist system
is the right way.
I guess we didn't bury that after all.
It's interesting to compare the old Cold War with this time.
What distinguishes this time versus the old Cold War,
Soviet Union had a strong military and nuclear weapons.
It had a very weak economy, which in no way
competed with ours.
China's economy is very strong.
We're dealing with an adversary, a competitor in China,
stronger than the Soviet Union was in the 1940s,
'50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s.
So if that was a Cold War, what are you calling this?
It's a competition of ideas, a battle of ideas.
Our idea, America's big idea, of a democratic society
and human freedom versus China's idea
that a communist state is stronger than a democracy.
We don't believe that.
So there's a battle here as to whose ideas
should lead the world.
And we believe those are American ideas.
The latest salvos in the battle for supremacy
came last month when China conducted
two days of large scale war games around Taiwan,
and President Biden imposed new stiff tariffs,
including 100% tax on Chinese electric vehicles.
[TICKING]
Grow up and get married.
Lesley Stahl on witnessing China change while reporting
for 60 Minutes--
This was different from the other times
I've been there reporting.
--at 60minutesovertime.com, sponsored by Nurtec ODT.
[QUIET TALKING]
[TICKING]
The day Russia invaded one of its neighbors,
waged a bloody war, and seized a fifth
of that neighbor's territory, fear and shock rippled
throughout the region.
We're not talking about Russia's invasion of Ukraine,
rather the small country of Georgia.
That invasion was more than 15 years ago.
Vladimir Putin's playbook hasn't changed much.
Today, Georgia, which shares a 556-mile border with Russia,
is still trying to remove the grip of the Kremlin.
Days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Georgia submitted
an application to become part of the European Union
with hopes of gaining a Western insurance policy to protect it.
Last October, we met with the president of Georgia, Salome
Zourabichvili.
The daughter of Georgian refugees raised in Paris,
she says that Vladimir Putin has launched
a quiet invasion of Georgia in an attempt
to extend Russia's reach.
The war in Ukraine is now moving into its third year.
How is the war there impacting life here?
It is, of course, a reminder of everything
that this country has gone through and of the fact
that it's always an immediate danger and threat.
It's already a part of the reality
that Russia is testing the ground.
You think the Russians are testing the ground right now
in Georgia?
Right now.
How so?
Here, their way, their easy way, is the hybrid war.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
A hybrid war that has included online and televised
disinformation campaigns and anti-Western propaganda pumped
into Georgia--
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
--a favorite tactic of the Kremlin.
Georgians have seen it before.
In 2008, three weeks before Russia
launched its first airstrike in Georgia,
Moscow hit the country with a series of cyber attacks.
The five-day bloody battle that followed
ended with Russia seizing 20% of Georgia's land.
President Zourabichvili says the mostly
muted international reaction to that war laid the groundwork
for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin's plan
to bring former Soviet republics back into the Russian fold.
Today, a fifth of Georgia is occupied by the Russian
military, and an estimated 8,000 Russian troops are inside
the Georgian border.
We traveled with Georgian security forces
37 miles outside the capital of Tbilisi into the tiny village of
[INAUDIBLE].
Today it is a rural no-man's land.
Oh my.
Across a rickety bridge, we found
an abandoned stretch of farmland choked off by barbed wire.
Warning signs to stay out.
Oh, there she is.
And a defiant 87-year-old Valya Veneshvili.
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
The Russians have told me, this is our land.
And I said, no.
Your land is in Russia.
This is our land, not yours.
You have no rights here.
How long have you been surrounded by the barbed wire?
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
For 15 years.
In 2008, her land was seized by Russian troops.
The grandmother of four still refuses to surrender her home.
Cut off from family, she relies on outsiders and a stick
to deliver food and the medicine she needs.
She whispered to us that the Russians were watching us
from over that hill.
Are you afraid of the Russians?
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
Yes, I'm afraid of them.
What if they take me and detain me?
Nobody can help me.
I'm alone.
When it's only a couple of them, I can always
answer them and fight back.
But when it's a lot of them, there is nothing I can do.
Georgia is bordered on the north by Russia,
the east by Azerbaijan, and the south by Armenia and Turkey.
The bridge between the Black and Caspian Sea,
an important route for natural gas and oil.
High up in the mountains of Georgia,
we saw another reason the small country of nearly four million
is crucial to the Kremlin.
A long line of trucks, many of them carrying European cargo
across the border into Russia.
United Nations data shows that since the war began,
everything from cars to chemicals
have rolled into Russia through Georgia,
some in violation of Western sanctions,
a lifeline for Putin's regime.
[HONKING]
There is traffic coming into Georgia too.
Thousands of Russian nationals entering the country
in cars and on foot, extending for miles and arriving in waves,
first at the beginning of the Ukraine war in 2022,
and again later that year when fighting-age
men fled Russia's mandated military service.
But some Georgians worry Putin loyalists
could be entering the country too,
laying the groundwork for Russia's next move.
[GUNSHOTS]
When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022,
he said it was to, among other things,
protect the Russians living there.
President Zourabichvili fears Putin could launch
a similar campaign in Georgia.
Since the war, Georgia has become home to 100,000 Russians.
It's very unnerving when, in your own country,
you have people that are talking the language of the enemy
and that believe that they're at home.
The Russians believe that they are at home?
They are behaving and believing that they are very much at home.
So there is a fine line, and that line
has to be kept so that we do not have incidents
in the future that would allow Russia
to use their favored doctrine of protecting
Russian-speaking citizens.
So why doesn't Georgia just say, no more Russians
through our border?
That is a question for the authorities.
Aren't you the authority?
No, I don't have the executive powers, and unfortunately.
The executive power to control Georgia's border
was squarely in the hands of its Prime
Minister, Irakli Garibashvili.
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
Publicly, he said that he supported the country's bid
to move away from neighboring Russia
and join the European Union, but his actions and inactions
told a different story.
Since the Ukraine invasion, Prime Minister Garibashvili
agreed to resume flights between Tbilisi and Moscow
for the first time in almost five years.
He's also failed to adopt strong sanctions against Russia.
Critics of the Prime Minister accuse him
of being in the pocket of a Georgian oligarch, Bidzina
Ivanishvili, a billionaire who helped get him elected.
The 67-year-old oligarch made his fortune in Russia and served
a brief stint as Georgia's Prime Minister.
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
His $50 million home looms over Tbilisi, a reminder
of his wealth and power.
In 2022, European lawmakers called for sanctions against
the oligarch for his, quote, "links to the Kremlin,"
a connection that could undermine Georgia's EU bid.
We're going in with a government that's completely corrupt,
a government that's pro-Russian, clearly anti-Western, clearly
does not really care about what the majority of the population
wants and needs.
Anna Tavadze and Dachima Dadze are
members of the Shay movement--
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
--a group with thousands of young followers
working towards Georgia's entry into the European Union.
[SINGING IN NON-ENGLISH]
If Russia wins, it means loss of freedom, loss of everything
that we fought for in the past 30 years basically.
It's a fight for values.
It's a fight for where you want to stand
in this big fight for democracy.
As soon as West in any form, be it the US partnership, be it
European Union is not represented in this country,
Russia will fill the void right away.
[SHOUTING]
They say the influx of Russians is already
changing the face of Georgia.
What are they doing if we look at it?
They're buying apartments.
They're buying private property.
They're opening up businesses.
Their actions changed Georgian economy.
The Russians are buying apartments here
in every 33 minutes.
They're purchasing a piece of land in every 27 minutes.
And they're registering a business in every 26 minutes.
So I think we're on the brink of very dangerous situation
here in Georgia.
According to public records, Russians have registered more
than 20,000 businesses in Georgia over the last two years
and launched five new Russian-only schools,
none of which are licensed by Georgia's Department
of Education.
Russians have driven rent up nearly 130%.
Prices for everything from food to cars have gone up 7%.
Over 100,000 Georgians have left the country because many of them
can't afford to live here anymore.
I've heard this described as a quiet invasion.
A quiet invasion, yeah.
There's a risk of the economic divergence.
There's a risk of military intervention.
And there's a risk of Georgia's statehood being destroyed.
Emmanuel Lezhnev, George Sumurgulenko, and Pavel Bahkadov
don't look like much of a threat.
All Russians in their 20s, they fled their country for fear
of being drafted or imprisoned for speaking out against Putin.
They now live in Georgia and work
at this Russian-owned comedy club in Tbilisi.
[LAUGHTER]
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
I tried, said, I'm against the war in Russia.
I was beaten and after that gone to prison three times.
So three times you went to jail?
Yes.
Yes, three times.
I believe and I know that Russians
actually against the war.
You think that most Russians are against the war?
Yeah, just scared.
Really scared.
Have any of you had any aggression towards you
because you're Russian?
Actually, I have a big writing on the wall.
It is the biggest thing I see from my window.
Just big, Russians go home.
There is no subtlety in spray paint.
Anti-Russian graffiti blankets the city,
along with support for Ukraine.
On crumbling walls, the Georgian flag
is joined with those of the European
Union, the US, and NATO.
Over 80% of the Georgian public backs entry into the EU,
as does Georgian President Zourabichvili.
But her position has become increasingly ceremonial
as the country moves towards a parliamentary government.
After she went to Europe to try and pave
the way for Georgia's EU bid, Prime Minister Irakli
Garibashvili accused her of violating the constitution,
banned her from traveling to Europe,
and tried but failed to impeach her.
President Zourabichvili has defiantly
continued to fly to Europe to meet
with leaders on her own dime.
It doesn't seem like the Prime Minister is
interested in joining the EU.
Well, that's a question that the whole population is asking,
whether they really want it or whether it's lip service.
This is a critical time.
Do you feel like the West, particularly the US,
has been responsive enough and supportive enough of Georgia
in this moment?
I don't think so.
And I would take one concrete example.
I've been a president now for five years,
and I've not managed to have any form of meeting
at my level, which be the president or the vice president,
even through a phone call.
I understand that there are more urgent issues,
but I think that some more public recognition is needed.
Recognition of?
Of the fact that the United States
is supporting our candidate status within the European
Union.
I know that that is the language that the US has
with our European partners, but that being repeated
by at the highest level would be meaningful
for the Georgian population.
The EU has laid out a list of requirements for Georgia
to become a full member.
The conditions include tackling corruption and lessening
the economic and political influence of domestic oligarchs.
Membership is not guaranteed.
What happens to Georgia if the EU denies the bid?
It would be a big victory for Russia.
[COCK CROWS]
A victory Valya Vanashvili refuses to give them.
87 years old, she says she is holding her ground
for herself and for Georgia.
That bid may be in further jeopardy.
This past February, the Georgian parliament
appointed a new prime minister, an anti-Western member
of the Russian-leading Georgian Dream party.
In May, his government passed a foreign agents law
which threatens to silence media outlets and NGOs inside Georgia.
And just this past week, his party
proposed legislation that would strip same-sex couples
of their rights.
Both moves, the EU has said, could seriously
compromise the country's chance for membership
and pull Georgia deeper into Russia's orbit.
[TICKING]
I'm Scott Pelley.
We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.
[TICKING]
[AUDIO LOGO]