Mikheil Saakashvili's open letter to the European Commission and European leaders

Georgia's third president addresses a special letter to European leaders asking them to grant EU candidate country status to Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova:

I am a former Georgian President who defended the country from Russia during the invasion of 2008. I am writing you from a prison cell in Georgia, where being a Ukrainian citizen and a senior advisor to President Zelensky, I am imprisoned on charges that Amnesty International calls “a clear case of political revenge”. Ukraine’s leadership many times called for my return to Ukraine.

As you are aware, Georgia applied for the EU membership together with Ukraine and Moldova.

Georgian government is very far from any democratic standards and also refused to express solidarity with Ukrainian people fighting for their freedom. Our people unmistakingly have a European identity.

Still the Georgian government is not the Georgian people. We have been striving to go back to our European home for generations and even centuries. We have a vibrant civil society and more than 80% of Georgians support joining the European Union.

I call on you to lead this voice of my people many thousands of whom took to the street rallies, and grant Georgia the status of a candidate of the EU together with Ukraine and Moldova.