Georgian government barred president from visiting Ukraine, France

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili planned to visit Poland, Ukraine, and France for talks on granting the republic the status of an EU candidate, but the government did not allow her to do so.

Salome Zurabishvili said this during her working visit to Brussels, Report informs citing TASS.

"I wanted to visit France, Poland, and even Ukraine, with which we are together in this matter and to which we should be grateful; otherwise, there would be no accelerated process [for granting the status] of a candidate, but I was denied this trip. I was told that the government has already done everything to support the process of obtaining candidate status," Zourabichvili said in her televised speech today.

"I do not believe that Georgia has a different future than the European one. I think that we should not ruin this process for the sake of someone, neither for the sake of Saakashvili nor for the sake of Gvaramia or Bidzina Ivanishvili," she said.

Zourabichvili added that she is returning to Georgia 'to protect the future of our children."