“Georgian society long ago removed the rose-tinted glasses through which it viewed the world, including Europe. Everyone has seen that Europe, the European Union, is not a congregation of saints acting in others’ interests,” declared Shalva Papuashvili, Speaker of the Georgian Parliament.

According to him, if you want to be independent and sovereign, you must be prepared to withstand pressure.

“Society already knows that external patrons shielded Saakashvili’s regime to prevent justice being served even 13 years ago, when the Georgian people removed the United National Movement’s puppet regime from power. Today, we witness the pressure. It is easy to imagine how enormous the pressure was at the time to prevent justice from being served.

The aim is singular: to preserve this party of hatred and these ideologues of hatred in Georgia like embers, so that they could maintain them as a slow-acting mine and, when necessary, activate them. We have observed this mobilisation at various times over the past thirteen years. Today, too, we observe that it is a grouping entirely controlled from outside, which they maintain because, since they cannot control the government, they control the opposition, attempting through discomfort and chaos to force, to coerce the government into advancing their own interests. This is a constant struggle. Particularly over the past four years, since the Russia-Ukraine war began, everyone has seen this.

Georgian society has long since removed the rose-tinted glasses through which it viewed the world, including Europe. Everyone has seen that Europe, the European Union, is not a congregation of saints acting in others’ interests. Everyone pursues very dry, pragmatic, calculated self-interest.

We saw this during the Ukraine-Russia war, when we observed that no one in the European Union, in Brussels, cares about our interests. Everyone sacrificed us then for escalation with Russia, including sacrificing us through the hands of their NGOs and the United National Movement, when they were pushing us towards escalation with Russia.

The Georgian people then realised that the idea that a rules-based international order is a universal value cherished by all is, in fact, a construct designed to persuade smaller countries to believe that the world operates on rules. In reality, it is the same policy of cold calculation and self-interest that existed before World War II.

We observe this, including through Georgia’s example, in how some European Union member states blatantly breach international rules regarding Georgia, such as the Vienna Convention and various international treaties. Therefore, the main lesson the Georgian people have learned over the past thirteen years is this: if you wish to be truly independent and sovereign, you must be prepared to endure and withstand the pressures that inevitably arise.

Neither did the Soviet Union gift us independence and freedom; rather, we won it, nor will anyone from any other direction gift it to us. Today, once again, we see attempts to strip us of part of our sovereignty. Our primary task is to refuse to relinquish our independence and sovereignty,” declared Papuashvili.