"Europe is our hope, our supporter and our backbone, but at the same time, we have been watching the West in astonishment — how for years it failed to punish Putin’s neo-fascist, neo-Stalinist regime. Europe! Show your strength! Putin must be defeated!” – said Georgian writer Lasha Bugadze during an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) in Brussels, where the situation in Georgia was being discussed.

As he noted, Georgia will never be part of the “Russian world.”

“In recent years, and especially over the past year — ever since the oligarch Ivanishvili’s ‘Georgian Dream’ adopted the so-called Russian ‘foreign agents law’ — the trauma of 1930s terror has fully returned to our reality: many Georgian artists, politicians, scientists, and citizens were exiled or physically destroyed during Stalin’s time under the same accusation — that they were supposedly agents of foreign powers. This is exactly what is happening now: critics of the pro-Russian oligarch, including NGO workers, opposition politicians, and we — the writers and artists — who boycott in solidarity with our detained and tortured colleagues, are being declared foreign agents.

Today, well-known actors like Andro Chichinadze, Vefkhiya Kasradze, Onise Tsikhadze, and others are imprisoned for protest. Ivanishvili’s ‘Georgian Dream’ has brought back Soviet-style censorship. This time, well-known theater directors and playwrights such as Data Tavadze and David Doiashvili are targets. So is the heroic journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli, who is fighting the regime.

Europe is our hope, our advocate, and our support. But at the same time, we watched in disbelief how the West, for years, failed to punish Putin’s neo-fascist, neo-Stalinist regime.

Putin attacked Georgia in 2008 — and got away with it. The murderer and tyrant was not punished. On the contrary, it was as if my small country was to blame: ‘How dare you defend yourself from Russia?’ Emboldened by this, Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014 and annexed Crimea — again, with no consequences. He was not punished.

And some European leaders did everything to block NATO’s Membership Action Plan for Ukraine and Georgia in 2008. This clearly became a green light for Putin — a few months later, he attacked us. Then, in 2022, he decided to try and destroy Ukraine altogether.

These were grave mistakes — of self-deception, of ignoring the problem — and they created a threat of Russian aggression not only for us, but for all of Europe.

I hope that now everyone realizes that Putin will not stop with Georgia or Ukraine.

That is why I say:

Europe, show your strength — the strength with which you defend your ideals. Putin must be defeated, and all his satellites in my country must be punished — those who are dragging Georgia away from Europe and making us lose our independence — just so that the autocratic, pro-Russian oligarch Ivanishvili can stay in power.

They slander Europe every day. Through propaganda, they present the West as the enemy, while at the same time enjoying every Western privilege — travel, entertainment, their children studying and living in the West.

This hypocrisy must end.

We are fighting — but as always, our struggle must be supported by Europe’s backing.

Georgia will never be part of the “Russian world,” because I believe the Putinist Russian world itself is doomed.

And in this fight, we must all stand together.

Terror and war must not become the permanent reality in Europe.”