Moldovan President Maia Sandu expressed regret over how ‘Russia pulled Georgia back into its orbit’, noting that the Kremlin is using similar strategies toward Armenia that it previously employed against Tbilisi.
Sandu made the remarks on Tuesday during her address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
Speaking about ‘Russia’s military aggression and its hybrid operations’ aimed ‘to undermine, control, and divide Europe,’ she highlighted Moscow’s attempts at electoral interference in Moldova in the past two years. Sandu said she is proud that her country resisted the ‘assault’ through a ‘whole-of-society effort’.
The Moldovan president then turned to Georgia, expressing regret that ‘Russia pulled Georgia back into its orbit by weaponising the fear of war, signaling that the wrong electoral choice would come at the cost of peace’. In her words, this happened ‘despite the courage of the Georgian people, who continue to stand up for democratic values, European aspirations, and the right to decide their own future’.
Addressing Georgia’s neighborhood, Sandu noted that ‘now Armenia is becoming a target of the same strategy — aimed at weakening sovereignty, influencing democratic choices, and exploiting internal vulnerabilities’.
‘We stand with Armenia and its people as they work to resist these pressures and defend their democratic future’, she added.
The ruling Georgian Dream party dismissed Sandu’s statements, with MP Levan Makhashvili advising her to ‘mind her own country and save it from cancellation’. He added that Sandu and ‘her colleagues’ have made their main goal ‘damag[ing] Georgia’s reputation’.
Former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s party, For Georgia, also responded to Sandu’s statements. The party affirmed its respect for the Moldovan president and added that Georgia has indeed fallen behind on its European and Euro-Atlantic path due to the government’s ‘deliberately harmful and incompetent foreign policy’.
However, the party did not agree with Sandu’s wording.
‘Treating Georgia’s return to Russia’s orbit as a fait accompli disregards the Georgian people’s historical choice and the firm European orientation of the majority of our society, undermines the joint efforts of our country and our friends to finally free ourselves from Russian influence, and to achieve full membership in the European family’, For Georgia said.
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Amid Georgia’s democratic backsliding, Sandu has on several occasions voiced criticism of the local authorities and expressed support for the anti-government movement, causing irritation among the ruling party and its allies.
Georgian Dream has been often accused by critics, both at home and abroad, of distancing Georgia from the Euro-Atlantic space and steering it into Russia’s orbit. The party denies the claims and insists that it is safeguarding the country’s sovereignty.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Georgian Dream has frequently claimed that external powers are trying to drag Georgia into the war against Russia and open a second front in the country, presenting itself as the guarantor against such a scenario.
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