Lithuania would offer refuge to Georgia’s pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili if she had to flee her country, Asta Skaisgirytė, President Gitanas Nausėda’s chief foreign policy adviser, said on Monday.
“Lithuania would provide refuge if there were such a need, but for now, President Zourabichvili has made it very clear that she will stand with her people in Tbilisi,” Skaisgirytė told LNK TV.
Zourabichvili’s term is set to end in mid-December, and her successor will for the first time be elected by an electoral college comprising parliamentarians and representatives of local authorities rather than by popular vote.
However, the president has vowed to remain in office as she considers Georgia’s new parliament and government illegitimate.
Georgia has been rocked by turmoil since the ruling Georgian Dream party declared victory in the October 26 parliamentary elections, which pro-EU opposition parties claim were rigged.
Protests erupted in Georgia last Thursday after the country’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that his government was postponing EU accession talks until 2028. The riot police in Tbilisi used rubber bullets, water cannons, and tear gas against protesters, who in turn threw pyrotechnics at officers.
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