I am ready to take on great responsibilities, including a second term, to return Georgia to the European path. If the charter proposed by me comes into force, I am ready to be a negotiator with our European partners, - said the President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili in an interview with "Le Figaro" in response to a question about her future political plans.
In the interview, Zourabichvili also focused on the political situation in Georgia, challenges and international relations.
According to her assessment, the country is now "faced with an existential choice - to follow its European destiny with the parliamentary elections on October 26, or to return to the service of Russia, with a regime modeled after the Putin regime."
The President also stated that "Georgian Dream" is trying to "cut the country off from Europe and put it under the Russian protectorate" with the adopted law on transparency. It was with this law that Putin subjugated his civil society, and the actions carried out by the Georgian authorities are in perfect accordance with what Putin is doing with himself."
When asked whether Moscow interfered in the adoption of the controversial law, the President answered that the Georgian government made a clear choice in favor of Russia.
"There is a very clear choice on the part of the Georgian government to get closer to Moscow. This became clear after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then, attacks against the diplomatic corps of Western countries have taken a systematic form. The government has abandoned its historical pro-Western stance in favor of ties with Moscow. It is for this reason that Russian leaders regularly congratulate their Georgian colleagues on their decisions and statements. It is difficult to say whether this is the only initiative of the ruling party "Georgian Dream" or the pressure of the Kremlin. But it is clear that this policy is dictated by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose relationship with Moscow is the most opaque.
We should expect everything from the government before the elections, machinations, such as creating obstacles to prevent the diaspora from voting, which represents approximately one third of the voters, using administrative resources, propaganda aimed at the fears of Georgians - war or the LGBT issue - said Zourabichvili in an interview with "Le Figaro".
