Why does pro-Russian mafia boss Ivanishvili still have the Legion of Honor? Why is Air France still partnering with an airline that is complicit in the kidnapping of an opponent? - said MEP Nathalie Loiseau.

“The situation in Georgia is getting worse every day. Because we are looking elsewhere. Because our gaze is fixed on Israel and Iran - we can understand that - Putin is pushing his pawns forward wherever he can, and he is doing this in Georgia.

NGOs are being persecuted, political prisoners are being arrested, or they are being sent abroad and forcibly returned to Georgia. The media is being silenced. The situation is increasingly similar to Belarus, with a completely pro-European population, run by a pro-Russian mafia.

The EU has not done enough so far, and it is becoming increasingly difficult. The EU has been passive in relation to the situation in Georgia, which I, as an election observer, saw as massively rigged. What we need to do today is to restrict visas and impose sanctions on all those responsible for this unbridled repression. We, the French people, must ask ourselves the right questions. Why does Bidzina Ivanishvili, the head of this pro-Russian mafia, still have the Legion of Honor? Why is Air France still in partnership with an airline that is complicit in the kidnapping of an opponent, that evades sanctions against Russia, and that has increased the number of flights to Moscow? Let's stop saying that we can't do anything. This is not true," Loiseau said.