“I fully support Georgians protesting against the Foreign Agents law because this is the route to Russia, not to the EU,” said Rasa Juknevičienė, a member of the European Parliament at a joint press conference with MEPs Viola von Cramon, Anna Fotyga, Petras Auštrevičius and Ahali Party leader Nika Gvaramia.

The MEP said she had three main messages to Georgia.

“I have three main messages to say today. First – for Georgia and Georgians. Georgia needs a Debidzinization law, not a Russian Foreign Agents law if the country wants to join the EU. This will help the country clear of the Kremlin agents, not other agents, fake agents. I fully support Georgians protesting against the Foreign Agents law because this is the route to Russia, not to the EU.

Second to the opposition and Georgian society – they have very clear aspirations towards the European Union. You should unite your efforts. It is not I want to teach you some things, you know very well but it is really an existential time for the region, for the country, and for all of us. No one can be more Georgian than Georgians themselves.

Third, more general – we see that last month, last weeks the Kremlin became very active with so-called countries ‘near abroad.’ I hate this expression but just to say how they take it in the Kremlin. We see the same messages, we hear from former Prime Minister, Irakli Garibashvili, who recently mentioned that Georgia is not ready to become a member country, This is shocking news and this is not new because we are following the situation in Georgia but this is new and an open message from the ruling party and this is exactly the same message what we hear from Moldova opposition gathering in Moscow. They already did that last weekend.

We see similar measures taken by the Kremlin in countries like Kyrgyzstan where they also want to implement the same, similar law. We see that more and more the Georgian government is becoming a puppet of the Kremlin and I am not afraid to say such words because today it is time to express ourselves in a very clear and open way. It is a historical time not only for Georgians but ourselves here.

We see how the Kremlin is active in front of the European Parliament elections and sometimes we hear the same messages. So, I think we must look into very clear criteria: what does it mean pro-Russian politics in any country, even in Georgia? And last, I will quote a very famous American proverb – If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it probably is a duck,” she said.