Georgia's Constitutional Court authorizes impeachment procedure against president

Georgia's Constitutional Court ruled that President Salome Zourabichvili violated the Constitution by her European trip and authorized the impeachment procedure against her, the Echo of Caucasus reported on Oct. 16.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Georgian news service reported that six members of the court supported the decision, and three were against it.

The motion was proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which criticized the pro-EU president for her visits to Berlin and Brussels as she sought support for Tbilisi's EU membership bid.

The governing party, which has been accused of pulling Georgia back into Russia's orbit, said that Zourabichvili's visit was against the will of the government and that the president "flagrantly violated" the constitution.

The motion will now move to the parliament, where it has to be supported by at least 100 lawmakers in order to pass.

The Georgian Dream and its coalition partner, People's Power, hold together only 84 of the 140 filled seats. According to the Echo of Caucasus, almost all opposition members of the parliament said they would vote against the impeachment, making the motion unlikely to succeed.

Kutelia, Sikharulidze: Ending Putin’s wars – don’t forget Georgia

Aside from the capital city of Tbilisi, where 40 miles away Russian occupying troops are stationed in Georgia’s South Ossetia region, the danger of unjust peace is also felt in Batumi, the country’s tourist hotspot on the Black Sea coast. Over the horizon lies Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea.

The Kyiv IndependentBatu Kutelia