“This is a regime that serves Russia. Defeating an authoritarian regime supported from abroad is possible only when the country unites against an existential threat. The current situation has already gone beyond ordinary party competition and requires a unified response not only from political parties but from the entire civil society,” Georgia’s fifth president, Salome Zurabishvili, said in a speech at the French National Assembly in Paris.

According to Zurabishvili, “the regime enjoys broad support from the Kremlin and receives congratulations at times from Kremlin spokespersons and at other times from the leaders themselves.”

“Almost everything in Georgia has already been criminalized: expressing opinions, simply standing on a sidewalk. Some people have already been tried and imprisoned over opinions expressed on Facebook, while a special department has been established within the Ministry of Internal Affairs to monitor citizens’ recordings.

“This is a regime that serves Russia. Whether this is being done forcibly or voluntarily, no one can ever prove, but what we see is not only pro-Russian narratives in propaganda, but also pro-Russian political positions. The regime enjoys broad support from the Kremlin and receives congratulations at times from Kremlin spokespersons and at other times from the leaders themselves.

“Georgia’s future depends, first and foremost, on Georgian society itself, on political and non-political civic forces, culture, the media, and the people who continue to resist.

“Defeating an authoritarian regime supported from abroad is possible only when the country unites against an existential threat. The current situation has already gone beyond ordinary party competition and requires a unified response not only from political parties but from the entire civil society,” Zurabishvili said.