Georgia's president tours Europe, US to strengthen ties after a week of protests
Georgia's president met French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and EU chief Charles Michel in Brussels on Monday to drum up international support for the country amid mounting tensions with Russia. The visits come after after lawmakers were forced to drop a controversial "foreign agent" bill in the face of major pro-Western protests.
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Following two days of large-scale protests last week, the ruling Georgian Dream party dropped the controversial legislation that would have labelled NGOs and media outlets that got more than 20 percent of funding from abroad as "foreign agents".
The demonstrations point to turmoil over the future of the country, which aims to join the EU and NATO, much to the frustration of Moscow.
The European Union had slammed the proposed law and said that it ran counter to Georgia's push to join the 27-nation bloc.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has been outspoken in her support for closer ties with the West and in her criticism of the ruling party in Tbilisi, but her powers are limited.
Zurabishvili, who was elected Georgia's first female president in 2018, is a former French diplomat.
Zurabishvili on Monday met with France's foreign minister Catherine Colonna in Paris and later held talks with European Council president Charles Michel, who has previously sought to negotiate between Georgia's feuding political factions.
Georgia formally applied last year alongside Ukraine and Moldova to join the EU.
While the other two applicants were granted candidate status, Georgia was told it needed to carry out further reforms to get on the long path to membership.
Over the weekend, she met with top US officials in Washington, including US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
A White House statement noted that both "welcomed the government's recent decision to withdraw" the draft legislation.
The pair also "discussed the need to ensure Russia continues to feel the full economic costs of the sanctions" levelled over its invasion of Ukraine, with Sullivan warning Georgia must "avoid becoming an avenue for evasion" of the economic restrictions.
"Direct interference"
Meanwhile, Ukraine on Monday denied it had meddled in anti-government protests that erupted in Georgia last week, after Tbilisi accused Kyiv of getting involved by commenting on the unrest.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had wished "democratic success" to the tens of thousands of protesters, who took to the streets in the capital Tbilisi.
In reference to Zelensky's remarks, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that "when a person who is at war finds time to speaks about a destructive rally... this is direct evidence that this person is involved, motivated to make changes happen here".
Garibashvili criticised statements from Ukrainian officials as "direct interference" in an interview with pro-government Imedi TV station on Sunday.
Moscow also claimed Friday that foreign countries were fomenting mass protests in Georgia, likening them to an attempted coup designed to sow tension on Russia's borders.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the demonstrations reminded him of a Ukrainian uprising that ousted a Kremlin-friendly government in 2014.
Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and recognised the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent, stationing military bases there after the war.
But Russian influence appears to be waning in Georgia, whose younger generations are strongly pro-European.
On Friday, the country's jailed ex-leader Mikheil Saakashvili praised the protesters for their role in stopping the proposed law.
"They were brilliantly resisting brutal force used against them," he wrote on Facebook.
EU and NATO membership is enshrined in the constitution and backed by some 80 percent of the population, polls suggest.
Make their voices heard
Many protesters see joining these bodies as the ultimate rupture with Moscow and a guarantee for ensuring individual freedoms and economic progress.
Nina Matiashvili, former secretary to the Georgian honorary consul in Munich, told French news agency AFP on Sunday: "We will never accept anything Russian, and we don't want to go back to the USSR. It's as simple as that."
The 34-year-old said it was the younger generation, those who grew up in independent Georgia, who had managed "to make their voices heard", she added.
"We hope the EU will support us. We want to receive candidate status immediately. As soon as possible."
(with news agencies)
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