Salome Zourabichvili: Nobody can think today that anything is going to be effective with today’s Putin
Salome Zourabichvili: Nobody can think today that anything is going to be effective with today’s Putin

Nobody can think today that anything is going to be effective with today’s Putin, – President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili said in an interview with the Europe Bureau of American edition POLITICO.

According to Georgian President, she aims to bring the country closer to EU and NATO, with help from her past life.

Speaking to POLITICO she stressed on France’s participation in a European Union monitoring mission on Georgia’s border with Russia.

“There are many things that France is now doing which would not have been possible in previous years,” she said. “[Macron] was very clear about … supporting Georgia in any way it can.”, – President said.

As article notes, “Zourabichvili met President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday at the Elysée Palace, on her first bilateral foreign trip as head of state. The visit was also something of a return home. Although she was elected president of the land of her ancestors in December, Zourabichvili was born in France and spent three decades working in its foreign service”.

“Our male colleagues would say Salomé is the man they wished they were, a steel fist in a silk glove” – the author of the article cites the words of French diplomat Muriel Domenach.

As Zurabishvili told POLITICO “she and Macron had agreed that discreetly mentioning Georgia in their talks with Russia was “a way to go forward” — though with no guarantee of success”.

“Nobody can think today that anything is going to be effective with today’s Putin,” – she said.

Zourabichvili said she is banking on France to be her foremost ally not just because of her long affiliation with the country. “The only country that is very determined to go down the road with continuing the European project is France, so we have to cling to France,” she said.