In an interview with LCI, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili spoke about the West’s attitude towards Russia even before the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine. According to Salome Zurabishvili, this reminds her of Sylvie Koffman's "Bedazzled" because, according to her, the West did not want to see what Russia really was and tried to make a deal with it.
“We must remember that Georgia is similar to the Russian occupation of Crimea, which was not discussed after 2014. If you had asked on the street about two and a half years ago, many would have told you that Georgia is one way or another a resolved issue, many have forgotten. Yes, this is very well described in the French work “Blindness”, or “Blindness”... Sylvie Kofman, who describes this situation very well - because they wanted to adapt to Russia, they did not want to see it as it is. And at some point, everyone found themselves faced with Russia, with the reality that Russia does not change, this can be seen in Ukraine in the most literal sense. And here it makes no sense to deceive yourself,” Zurabishvili said.
When asked by a journalist whether Russian money, especially petrodollars, played any role, the President of Georgia replies:
“I don’t know how this happens, but just as in Germany gas was one of the conductors of Russian influence, so in France, maybe it was oil or a combination of oil and French romanticism; The idea that there is a “history of unbreakable love” between France and Russia, along with all this, created this propaganda,” notes Salome Zurabishvili.