Zelensky criticizes Georgia’s leadership for protest crackdown

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized the harsh crackdown on demonstrators in Georgia and accused the country’s leadership of bowing to Moscow.

The events in the former Soviet state are “not just a problem of one nation and not just of our region,” Zelensky said in Kiev during his evening video address.

The government is “pushing the country into obvious dependence on Russia,” he said.

“When Moscow praises the government in Georgia, it clearly shows who they are working for in Tbilisi and who the protests are being dispersed for,” he continued.

Ukraine is working with European countries on a response, Zelensky said, adding: “I have given the order to prepare appropriate sanctions resolutions.”

In recent years, Ukraine and Georgia have been politically close in their opposition to Russia.

In the South Caucasus republic, protests have been taking place nightly against the country’s newly elected Moscow-friendly government because it suspended the EU accession process.

Police have used force to break up the demonstrations, deploying tactics reminiscent of those used by Moscow.

The protests continued for the seventh evening in a row on Wednesday, with participants blocking the capital Tbilisi’s central throughfare, Rustaveli Avenue.

Heavily armed police officers did not initially take action against the demonstrators. However, several opposition politicians were arrested throughout Wednesday.

Four opposition parties had met in a Tbilisi hotel for consultations to chart their next moves. The parties had entered parliament at the end of October following the election, which was marred by accusations of manipulation, but they did not take up their mandates in protest.

When the representatives came out of the hotel, masked men arrested one of the politicians, according to media reports.

Like diplomats and other government officials before them, a senior official from the Ministry of the Interior’s special forces also resigned his post, reported the Georgian news agency Interpressnews.