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towards a real European defence is going to be taken. But this instability and unpredictability is also going to affect Russia, a country that might overplay their hand. Mr Putin might think that everything is fine for him, but I don’t think he can plan and foresee exactly how the new Trump administration
is going to behave on many different issues. This unpredictable situation takes more flexibility, more adaption, more capacity to have political alternatives, which is not exactly how one would describe today’s Russia.
How would you evaluate your own role within Georgia’s ongoing pro-EU civil resistance movement?
Externally I’m still representing
the Georgia that has received [EU] candidate status and that has been steadily moving towards Europe for
the last thirty years. Internally I have become the de facto leader, not directly of the protest movement as that is very much taking place on the ground, but of the coordination of the opposition.
This is not a united opposition because I think one thing that is very clear in
Georgia is that nobody wants to go back to one-party rule, so all these ideas of having a single-party opposition is not very appealing to people. However, people are calling for more coordination of opposition forces, of civil society, and that is the role that I’m playing now – to defend those democratic principles, to defend Georgia’s role with its partners and to make clear to our partners that
diplomatic capacity to try to find a solution [to the situation in Georgia].
The crisis is in fact a paralysis of the country, where the government is not governing but is just taking repressive measures. Civil society is continuing to protest. They have not been intimidated or stopped by these repressive measures, and this has been going on for almost
“It’s through manipulation of elections and through foreign leaders’ submission [to Russia] that Russia is hoping to attain its objectives, precisely because it is not sure if it is guaranteed to win the peace talks”
we need more support ... more moral support in the first instance, because we know very well the limitations of our partners at this stage to take active measures that could help the protests. But they do have a diplomatic capacity which has not been used, and both
the EU an US together should use this
five months. The country is suffering, the economy is suffering, tourism is going down, and there have been many other impacts due to the reduction in support programmes from the US and EU. These programmes were sustaining the [Geor- gian Dream] government as much as civil society; the idea that [support] was
Salome Zourabichvili is still seen by many Georgians as their country's legitimate president. / Georgian presidency
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