Georgian Parliament Speaker says following Europe’s Russia policy would have left Georgia in ruins

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said the country would have ended up “destroyed, like Ukraine is today”, had it followed European calls in the past to fully isolate Russia, noting that some of the same actors are now discussing the need to resume dialogue with Moscow.

Papuashvili was responding to journalists’ questions about French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent statement that Europe needs to talk to Russia.

“I said this before and I will repeat it: there is nothing new happening”, Papuaashvili said. “Less than a year after the August 2008 war, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov jointly pressed the ‘reset’ button. Every war ends in peace; the question is who is damaged by the war”.

From today’s perspective, especially in light of the European Union’s decisions made last night, Papuaashvili said it is still impossible to say who will emerge as the winner of the Russia-Ukraine war. “However, it can be said with certainty that this war already has two losers: Ukraine and the European Union”, he added.

According to Papuaashvili, Ukraine has lost hundreds of thousands of citizens, suffered massive bloodshed, seen its economy destroyed, and is now facing decisions about de facto recognition of lost territories. At the same time, he said, the EU has taken on the burden of financing Ukraine’s financial and military assistance.

He noted that, under recent decisions, the EU is taking out loans and then lending that money onward to Ukraine.

“For four years we were told that Russia was isolated, that there were no ties, no trade”, Papuaashvili said. “Then it turned out that trade was ongoing, that more money was being paid into Russia’s economy than was being provided to Ukraine in aid, and that countries like Lithuania and Estonia were profiting from selling alcohol to Russia-exporting more alcohol to Russia than Georgia does, despite not producing a single drop of wine themselves. All of this was happening secretly.”

Papuaashvili said current discussions about the need to maintain relations with Russia once again demonstrate a reversal of the policy of isolation. “We have seen many resets between major countries,” he said. “But when they were urging us to become part of a ‘ring of fire,’ to close borders, damage ourselves, and stand on the brink of war, what potential would we have had later to restore relations or resume dialogue?”

“Had we believed those Europeans who claimed Russia was isolated and who are now talking about restarting dialogue with it, we would have been a destroyed country-just like Ukraine is today,” Papuaashvili concluded.