EU path halted “on Moscow’s orders” - former Georgian president
Salome Zourabichvili, the former pro-European president of Georgia, has claimed that the country’s movement toward the European Union has been deliberately halted under Moscow’s instruction, News.Az reports, citing Georgian media.
“What is happening today has been planned for two years — ever since we were celebrating in Freedom Square when Georgia received EU candidate status,” she said, commenting on the European Commission’s latest enlargement report. “Immediately, a conscious, deliberate and consistent dismantling of our European path began, a path that opened faster than expected because of events in Ukraine.”
The report, published Tuesday, states that Georgia’s integration process has “effectively come to a halt” over the past year, expressing “serious concern over the sharp deterioration of the situation in Georgia” and warning that the country is backsliding on key democratic standards. In response, the ruling Georgian Dream party accused Brussels of blackmail and pressure.
“Georgian Dream began systematically dismantling this path. Today, two years later, Georgian Dream has achieved the freezing of our candidate status. And Georgian Dream bears responsibility for everything that has happened,” Zourabichvili said.
She added that anti-government protests on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue will continue.
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