Georgia has become a passive object of international relations, - the fifth President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, said in an interview with Monocle Radio.

“Unfortunately, what concerns the US and Europe, Georgia is out of the map, and that is a very big concern, because falling out of the map is for Georgia losing its historic role in this region and beyond this region. Georgia has become a passive object of international relations, and that should not turn to which is the objective of Russia, the giving up of Georgia to Russian influence, without any competition and any alternative. And Russia is behaving in its usual manner. It controls practically not only the government, through which manners we do not know, but they control the type of laws that we receive that clearly are copies of laws made in Russia. They want more circumvention of sanctions, they're using now Georgian ports for the Russian oil, which has been finally identified by the European Union. So yes, Russia is never going to be satisfied completely, but it has found a new strategy, which is a hybrid strategy of how to control, take control of a state without having to go through the very difficult military invasion that it's going through in Ukraine”, she said.

Asked what she wants European allies to do in the next six months to get Georgia back on the European path, Salome Zurabishvili said, “Georgians are very conscious that they have to count on themselves.”

“We have been seeing in the last period that there are very few instruments that the European Union has or is ready to use to support the Georgian civil society. But at the same time, there are things that can be done. The general discourse is to say that while not engaging with the authorities, they are supporting the civil society. But I think more could be done outside of Georgia. To give a better picture of what is happening really, support some of the people, for instance, the diplomats that have resigned from the diplomatic service, because they were in disagreement with the decision about closing down the European path. Those people could be supported to have a think tank in Brussels and work on the future prospects for Georgian integration as soon as we come back to the right track. in the same manner there could be different forms of supporting outside of Georgia, some of the groups that really need support, like journalists, investigative journalist, some activists, young students”, said Salome Zurabishvili.