About 100,000 Russian tourists, or refugees, we don't know what to call them, arrived in Georgia.... even more arrived and they went in other directions. They cannot use bank cards, transfers. Like other European countries, we have imposed total financial restrictions, we have not imposed national sanctions, like many other countries, for example, Moldova, the President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili said in an interview given to the French media agency France Info.

To the journalist's question that Europe may not like the fact that Georgia did not join the sanctions against Russia, Zurabishvili replied that "a lot of things about this issue are not accurate. First of all, Georgia has joined the sanctions."

According to her, Georgia is less dependent on Russia than many European countries.

“About 100,000 Russian tourists, or refugees, we don't know what to call them, arrived in Georgia.... even more arrived and they went in other directions. They cannot use bank cards, transfers. Like other European countries, we have imposed total financial restrictions, we have not imposed national sanctions, like many other countries, for example, Moldova. This is not the central issue. We are less dependent on Russia than many European countries; We have great independence in energy issues. We import gas from Azerbaijan, we do not have Russian gas. As for electricity, we have hydroelectric plants.

Energy dependence on Russia is 8% in certain periods, which is completely manageable. Our attitude is determined not by these imports, but by the occupied territories. Russia has threatened many times that, like Ukraine, it would hold referendums there [in our occupied territories] and completely annex these territories. There should be a clear response from Europe in this regard as well. I don't think that Europe or the world needs another conflict after the conflict in Ukraine," Zurabishvili said.