The sanctions imposed on Russia over the events in Ukraine are more symbolic than serious. Such a statement made today the President of Georgia at the meeting with representatives of the international media.

“When there is a democratic country and you do not respond to aggression, perhaps it may be perceived by someone as a weakness of democracy, but that is how democracy works. When there is a big difference between democracy and dictatorship, democracy is worried about people’s lives. This is what becomes the reason for weakness.

I think the sanctions that have been imposed are more symbolic than serious. These sanctions will be imposed in a slightly different way than what we have seen so far. If there anything that we need to learn from this past – from the developments in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine in 2014 - it is that our Western partners did not use all the opportunities they had at that stage.

I do not know what the nature of the sanctions will be and what the government will decide, but we must share solidarity. We must show solidarity. We are a country that has already been contributing to this process as two of our regions are occupied”, - said Salome Zourabichvili.