During a visit to Paris and Brussels, Salome Zurabishvili campaigned for Georgia's EU membership.

In an interview with the FAZ, the 69-year-old President of the Caucasus republic explains why a clear signal to Vladimir Putin is now important.

“Ukraine deserves our full solidarity.

But Moldova and Georgia must not be left on the sidelines, because we are also under pressure and indirectly threatened," said Zurabishvili.

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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"Russia is already occupying parts of our territory," she said, referring to Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"The threat from Russia exists, although there is no immediate danger as all troops are currently mobilized in Ukraine," she said.

"We don't know where Putin's appetite ends," she warned, "that's why European solidarity is so important."

At the informal EU summit of heads of state and government this Thursday in Versailles, the three countries' applications for membership will be discussed.

Zurabishvili speaks of a "new openness" on the part of the Europeans to the Georgians' desire to be able to build on a clear EU perspective.

Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia signed association agreements with the EU at the end of June 2014.

It is now important not to distinguish between the three countries.

The President listened carefully as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen assured Ukraine: "You belong with us." She hopes that this sense of belonging extends to Georgia as well.

"No lessons learned from war in Georgia"

Zurabishvili expresses his conviction that the EU has lost a lot of time.

No lessons were learned from the 1992/93 war in Georgia.

“He was Russia's answer to Georgia's independence.

The ethnic dimension was only put forward,” she said.

Zurabischvili was born in Paris and embarked on a diplomatic career.

Her ancestors had fled Georgia from the Bolsheviks in 1920.

Since 2003 she was French ambassador in Tbilisi.

From a privileged perspective, she witnessed the pro-Western Rose Revolution, which resulted in the ousting of then-President Eduard Shevardnadze.

Zurabishvili joined the revolutionary leader Mikheil Saakashvili, who appointed her foreign minister.

Even then, she set herself the goal of preparing for EU accession.

But the spirit of optimism did not last long.

Saakashvili dismissed the minister in autumn 2005. In her book "The Georgian Tragedy" she settled accounts with Saakashvili.

The rift lasts to this day.

The President opposes calls for a pardon for the former President imprisoned on corruption charges.

In 2018 she was the first woman to be elected to the highest state office.

Zurabishvili sees Georgia as a test laboratory for Putin's imperialist plans.

From the invasion in August 2008 he got the impression that the EU would let him do it.

But the casting strategy didn't work.

The aim was to lead Georgia back into the "Russian Empire".

The war, the Russian military bases, the Russification and the ban on the Georgian language in the occupied territories, and the shifting of the occupation borders all served Putin's ambition.

However, Georgia's desire for independence is unbroken, and the longing for a European future is stronger than ever.

"The war against Ukraine is even more total, even more brutal than the attack that we experienced," she says.

“But Russia has gained the conviction from us that European and American reactions will remain insignificant if things move quickly.

The American withdrawal from Afghanistan was probably seen as another sign of weakness,” says the President.

There are no instruments for sanctions against Moscow

Georgia is in a strange position in the sanctions debate.

All flight connections to Russia are interrupted.

Tbilisi does not maintain diplomatic relations with Moscow.

"We hardly have any efficient instruments to sanction Moscow," she says.

Zurabischwili refers to the solidarity rallies with Ukraine, for which tens of thousands of people regularly gather in the capital Tbilisi.

"Relationships with Russia can never be fraternal again after the brutal war of aggression against Ukraine," she warns.

That is why it is so important that the EU sends a clear message.

"I'm proud of Germany and France and the other EU partners because I feel a real change," she said.

"They have opened their eyes." The reassessment may come late, but the most important thing is that Europe does not become fickle.