Georgia President Asks European Country For Help In Facing Russia's Efforts To Control Its Country

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili/PHOTO via Instagram @salome_zourabichvili

JAKARTA - Georgia President Salome Zourabichvili called on European countries to help their country face Russia's efforts to impose control over their country.

President Salome Zourabichvili spoke after the fourth night of clashes between protesters and police after the ruling Georgian Dream announced last week they postponed negotiations to join the European Union.

"We want our fate in Europe to be returned to us," Zourabichvili said.

"This is an uprising across the country," he added.

Zourabichvili, whose power is largely ceremonial, said Russia, already at war in Ukraine, was carrying out a hybrid strategy against Georgia and other countries such as Moldova, NATO, and members of the European Union, Romania.

There is a very strong need for clear moral and political support from Europe, said the 72-year-old president.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied Russia interfered in the situation in Georgia, which he compared with the 2014 "Maidan" revolution in Ukraine which toppled the pro-Russian president.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned on Georgia Sunday "moving quickly along the Ukrainian path, into a dark ravine", and predicted it would end "very badly".

The United States and the EU have raised concerns over what they see as the decline in Georgia's democracy, the South Kaucasus nation of 3.7 million people located at the European and Asian intersections and was once part of the Soviet Union.

The government, which earlier this year passed a law banning foreign agents' and restricting LGBT rights, said it was acting to protect Georgia from outside interference and prevent the country from being dragged, such as Ukraine, into a war with Russia.

Iraqi Prime Ministerli Kobakhidze accused the opposition of "coordinated violence" aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order.