President claims all Georgia is in 'revolt' against Russia

Georgia's president has appealed to European countries to confront what she described as a Russian attempt to impose control on her nation.

- FELIX LIGHT

President Salome Zourabichvili - locked in a standoff with her own government - was speaking after a fourth night of clashes between protesters and police after the governing Georgian Dream party announced last week that it was suspending talks on joining the European Union.

Critics saw that as confirmation of a Russian-influenced shift away from pro-Western policies and back towards Moscow’s orbit, something the ruling party denies. “We want our European destiny to be returned to us,” Ms Zourabichvili, who has personally remonstrated with riot police, told France Inter radio. “This is the revolt of an entire country.”

Ms Zourabichvili, whose powers are mainly ceremonial, said Russia, already at war in Ukraine, was conducting a “hybrid strategy” against Georgia and other countries such as Moldova and Nato and EU member Romania.

“There is a very strong need for very clear moral and political support” from Europe, said the 72-year-old president, who was born in France to Georgian parents and once served as French ambassador to Georgia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia was interfering in the situation in Georgia, which he compared to the 2014 “Maidan” revolution in Ukraine that overthrew a proRussian president.