The European Union must not allow a country, to which it granted candidate status just a year ago, to become a model of totalitarian dictatorship within a year – Resist! – stated Georgia’s fifth President Salome Zurabishvili during her speech at the “Meeting for Democracy” event in Paris.

Salome Zurabishvili spoke about the Russian threat and its strategy, emphasizing that Russia carried out the most sophisticated election manipulation in Georgia – “Through its puppets and oligarchs, Russia has achieved almost complete usurpation of the state.”

She warned Europeans that Russia’s hybrid strategy poses a threat to everyone and is a geopolitical challenge for the European Union.

Speaking about Russia’s war in Ukraine, Salome Zurabishvili stressed that Georgia and Ukraine share a common experience and therefore know what Russia really is – “something people tend to forget from time to time, with a desire to believe it’s a normal state,” but that’s not the case.

“First of all, thank you to France for being at the forefront of the global fight for democracy and freedom.

You just heard the voice of Ukraine. Georgia’s voice is not so different, even though today we are not part of the horrific war that Russia is waging against Ukraine. But we have shared experiences, and Ukraine, just like Georgia, can tell you in great detail what Russia really is – something people tend to forget, with the wish to believe that Russia is a normal state, behaves normally with its neighbors, and with its own people… and again – no!

Ukraine and Georgia have many similar experiences – Russian aggression in Georgia in 2008, and due to the lack of sufficient reaction to that, aggression followed in Crimea in 2014, and then in 2022, which continues to this day.

Russia has not succeeded in Ukraine. On the contrary, Vladimir Putin failed to capture Kyiv in three days. He has achieved nothing – no military successes. Russia’s prestige is disqualified, its strategic goals remain out of reach. Military leadership is constantly changing, it suffers material losses (because human losses do not mean much to Russia), economic losses, and even had to bring in Koreans – this is not a victory. Russia has no victory and sees now that Europe is realizing the need to rearm to protect itself, and that peace must be earned and defended.

Russia is now looking for a new strategy. Some elements of it are already visible – lower costs, less direct attacks.

And once again, as in 2008, Georgia is the testing ground, and this is the message I want to convey – Georgia was the place where Russia carried out the most sophisticated election manipulation, where Russia, through its puppets and oligarchs, achieved nearly full usurpation of the state. Where it managed to spread its propaganda – perhaps in one of the countries that knew Russia best and experienced it firsthand – and yet the propaganda worked to some extent.

This is Russia’s new hybrid strategy – one meant to replace the more expensive military strategy. And I have come to warn you: this hybrid strategy threatens everyone. We are living this today as Georgia’s tragedy.

However, Georgia’s youth have been standing in the streets for 140 days now, not leaving – just like our Ukrainian friends and young people do not leave the trenches.

We too are resisting, and we will continue to resist in our own way. And I will remain the president of this people until the end!

But this challenge is everyone’s challenge. It is a challenge to all democracies. It is a challenge for all developing democracies of the former Soviet space – Moldova, Ukraine, and many others nearby. We’ve seen the attempts on Romania. We’ve seen attempts on Moldova. And what we hear today about the need for democratic elections in Ukraine – coming from Mr. Putin – is a sign that after the war, he intends to implement this new hybrid strategy there as well. We must stand against it!

This is a geopolitical challenge, because the loss of Georgia (which will not and cannot happen) would not be insignificant. This is the Black Sea. This is the Caucasus. This is the fate of European Armenia. This is the route to Central Asia. This is the region you care most about. But above all, this is a challenge for the European Union.

The European Union must not allow a country – to which it granted candidate status just one year ago – to become a model of totalitarian dictatorship within a year. The EU must equip itself with the tools to make decisions, to have a coherent policy, and to be able to speak up – not be in the hands of one or two countries that are already moving down the path of totalitarianism.

On this path of resisting totalitarianism, we must defend democracy – defend it everywhere. Above all, this means European institutions, European rearmament, but also moral rearmament, political rearmament – the ability for all to make decisions together.

On this path of moral, political, and, if necessary, military rearmament, France is once again on the front line, as always. And we will always stand with it, always look to it with hope and the ambition that France – the mother of democracy and homeland of freedom – will always remain so, no matter the challenges you face today.

Resist (totalitarianism)!” – Salome Zurabishvili told the audience.