At the Warsaw Security Forum panel “The Next Chapter of EU Enlargement,” Georgia’s ex-President Salome Zurabishvili responded to remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said Georgia had “lost to Russia.”
“I disagree a little with President Zelensky. We have not lost yet—we are still fighting, we are still on the streets, I am on the streets,” Zurabishvili stated.
She stressed that the European Union must take a more active role in safeguarding democratic processes in its partner countries. “The EU should not only monitor elections in Georgia or Moldova, but also intervene, assist, support, prevent, and analyze. The old methods are no longer enough,” she said.
Zurabishvili argued that traditional election observation missions fail to uncover the kinds of sabotage Russia is capable of. “Russia uses money, propaganda, disinformation, fake news—psychological warfare learned from its KGB past. For some reason, Russia is better at these things today. Meanwhile, the EU, this huge power, looks passive, waiting to see whether we can overcome these challenges or not,” she noted.
She added that Georgia was unable to counter these challenges effectively because she lacks executive authority to use state services or ensure broader diaspora participation in elections, unlike Moldovan President Maia Sandu, who was able to defend the votes of her citizens.
“But we need more—more support, more active attention from the EU,” Zurabishvili said. “People on the streets must see that, while waiting for enlargement, the EU is already present and acting. If that requires internal solutions within the EU regarding accession, this is what all of us expect. We believe in this and in our common European future.”
Related story: Zelensky: Europe has already lost Georgia — it cannot afford to lose Moldova
