The European Union is pushing Georgia into a confrontation with Russia and criticizing Tbilisi for refusing to join anti-Russian sanctions, said Mikhail Kalugin, Director of the Fourth CIS Department at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“EU officials are inciting Georgia into a ruinous confrontation with Russia,” he said.
According to the diplomat, the demand to align with the sanctions has become one of the key conditions for EU candidate countries.
Kalugin noted that the Georgian authorities consider imposing restrictions on Russia detrimental to their own economy. Having failed to pressure Tbilisi, Brussels began introducing sanctions against Georgian businesses, he emphasized.
At the same time, the Russian MFA representative asserted that Russia considers Georgia’s development of relations with the European Union to be Tbilisi’s internal decision.
Mikhail Kalugin’s statement echoes a narrative actively promoted by the ruling Georgian Dream party. Notably, on October 5, the party’s Secretary General and Mayor of Tbilisi, Kakha Kaladze, criticized the EU, stating that relations with Brussels must be built “on truth and justice”: “Without anyone looking down on us and expressing displeasure that the country did not join European sanctions, did not harm its own economy, and disregarded threats about opening a ‘second front’.”