Partner, or Bully? Should Europeans worry about their growing dependence on Russian energy? For a not very reassuring answer, they need only look to Georgia. It's a case study in intimidation.

Byline: Owen Matthews and Anna Nemtsova

Vladimir Putin was feeling indignant. Why don't Europeans trust Russia? "I constantly hear complaints" that Europe is "overly dependent" on Russian energy, he griped last week to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Siberian city of Tomsk. "But Russia is a reliable partner. It always has been."

Really? Ask the Georgians--or almost any of Russia's former satellites. Rather than a reliable partner, they've found Moscow deeply vindictive toward any neighbor that crosses its interests. Ever since the pro-Western Rose Revolution of November 2003, Georgian leaders say, Moscow's been trying to ruin the country's economy--first by raising gas prices, and in recent months by blocking imports of fruits, vegetables, wine and mineral water. Ditto for Ukraine, hit with a doubling of gas prices, a gas stoppage and a blockade of meat and produce in the wake of its own Orange Revolution. Even poor Moldova, which hasn't had a revolution of any color yet, was hit with a gas hike and a ban on wine exports to Russia after it struck a deal with the European Union sealing the borders of the tiny, Russian-speaking enclave of Transdniestr, which Moscow regards as a protectorate. "Russia treats us like it treated Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Germany in the '50s and '60s," Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili tells NEWSWEEK. "We are being punished for our attempts to be free."

So maybe it's not so surprising, after all, that Europeans worry. Given Russia's track record of bullying its close neighbors, won't it eventually bully distant ones too? "Europe is relying for a large portion of its energy supplies on a country that does not hesitate to use its monopoly power in devious and arbitrary ways," wrote the international financier George Soros in The Financial Times last week. "European countries are at Russia's mercy."

If Georgia is any indicator, that isn't a good place to be. Last month, shortly after Tbilisi declared that it would oppose Russian membership in the World Trade Organization, Russian health officials declared that Georgian wine was tainted with heavy metals and pesticides and banned all imports. "That means three more bottles per person for us to drink here," jokes Kakha Bendukidze, a businessman recruited by Saakashvili to be minister of Economic Reform. But the ban is deadly serious--wine accounted for 12 percent of Georgia's exports last year, or more than $90 million. Shortly after came a ban, also on health grounds, of Borzhomi mineral water, wiping out another 3.5 percent of Georgia's trade balance. That comes on top of yet another ban on Georgian citrus fruits and vegetables, a staple of the country's agricultural exports. "We hear threats like, 'Georgia will die of hunger'," says Saakashvili. "But we won't. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Perhaps. Georgia's economy grew 9 percent last year. And while the blockade will certainly put a severe dent in that rise, the Georgian president argues, it will also force Georgia find to new markets. "We've been thrown into the ...