Thread by @ThisIsAndro

Strongly worded, if not over the top, message from Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee of Lithuania @ZygisPavilionis. @GeorgianDream41 now under real pressure

Judge yourself, the thread with his quotes to follow. Strongest words in tweet /2,3,5,6,12,13

Thread

"I hope they [gov] really think. Because I said if you continue like this, I don't want to be the one, /1

as someone who was always fighting for Georgia, I don't want to be the one who will rally Trans Atlantic community to make first negative steps towards the leadership of people who pretend to defend rule of law, but actually they shake the foundations of democracy /2

in Georgia. Because normally in democratic community, [if] someone is not respecting principles and starts imprisoning the opponents, well, we could come to the question on sanctions. But its still not on the table, because I hope the government will respond. /3

Georgia is the leader of democracy in the region. You are the beacon of it and I want this road to be continued. You have a real chance to join EU and NATO, those are not words." /4

"If opposition leader will be imprisoned, a response will follow. I don't want to discuss it [the response] now, because I'm still full of hope that it won't happen. We'll collect the data and make response especially towards those individuals who committed this action" /5

It will be targeted, towards those directly responsible. It will not hurt Georgian people, but somebody will pay the price. But what I don't want to happen for Georgian to pay the price for this, because if situation escalates, Putin will drink a lot of Champaign. /6

He already occupied your country, divided your country, so I hope you will not allow him to occupy your souls, and heads, and hearts. Because he is very good at that. He is provoking you, please me more Lithuanian. If somebody behaves badly, do not react. Behave European and /7

and show example of it. And we will rally the best countries that supports you. Because I truly believe that Georgia has a great chance to correct a lot of historic mistakes, including [one] done in Bucharest NATO Summit. And i feel that we have people in Washington now... /8

who wanna correct those mistakes and put Georgia back on track, but it very much depends on you. You have to stay united and government, please open the door for dialogue. We will be coming every week, we will not silence it, we will make it very loud in all capitals. /9

We have already asked president [Charles] Michel to meet the opposition parties here. It must be done, when EU president comes to your country. Secretary Pompeo for some reason didn't, we didn't like it honestly, so if we are Europeans, if we really believe in values we /10

...fight for, I really hope that the president of EU will hear all the voices, not only Georgian government." /11

Question from @RTavisupleba: Is that the end of your mission here?

Pavilionis: I was only here for few days over the weekend, but I really hoped that the government would be very clear that they will drop all the charges against opposition leader, UNM leader Nika Melia. /12

It didn't happen today, but I really hope it will happen tomorrow. Because if tomorrow will not come, they will the price for this. And they will never sell jailing of an opposition leader to the West. They can sell it in Belarus, they can sell it in Russia, but I don't want /13

...Georgia to go the road of Belarus and Russia, because its a road to nowhere. You will lose your leadership, your charisma that is shining in the West. I want you to be the leader and the anchor of the democracy, because a lot of countries need it.... / 14

... even Armenia and may be.... you know... we need to help them. The whole region depends on you. Look what is happening in Russia and other countries. Democracy is put on test and your are litmus test for democracy in the region, like we have been 30 years ago /15

And we are very sensitive to it. We were first to revolt against it and first to defend it. And when freedom is taken from our brother and sisters we react like freedom is being taken from us. When Russia attacked Georgia in 2008, I went out to the streets with my kids.... /16

It was the biggest national demonstration after our independence demonstrations. Because we felt that our freedom was under attack. Today Georgia, tomorrow is our freedom us. And we were right. The West didn't react to this attack on Georgia, Ukraine followed. /17

now Belarussian brothers and sisters are suffering. Russian democrats are being imprisoned and beaten. If we allow this cancer to grow in different forms, in corrupted oligarch and other forms then who are we like democracies if we are not able to defend our own values. /18

By doing nothing you allow the evil to grow. We are 50% of world trade, intellectual power. We have tools and means to defend democracies. We have to do it., together with Biden admin and other wonderful governments, including new government in Lithuania /19

...we are very much committed for you to succeed and we will be present at any moment when democracy will be attacked in Georgia. You will have politicians come here from Lithuania and not only Lithuania - Poland, Sweden, Germany, UK, Canada, America. We will be all here. /20

... We will be all Georgians if democracy will be under attack in this country. So dear representatives of Georgian government, don't do mistakes. Lead the country to EU and NATO together with whole nation, restart the dialogue and you might succeed /21

and 100 years of soviet occupation that you will commemorate might be the beginning of some opening instead of beginning of end of your democracy. /22

Here from 25:30 minute he is answering questions from journalists
fb.watch/3Oo-IPXPGN/ /23 end