UK offers Georgia financial aid for withstanding Russian pressure

The United Kingdom (UK) is pledging to offer €28 million (64.8 million GEL) to Georgia and other Eastern European countries who are facing oppression by Russia.

At the European Union Summit in Brussels yesterday, Prime Minister of Great Britain David Cameron announced the UK would assist a number of Eastern European countries, including Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as they were countries that struggled to withstand ongoing pressure from Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

"We've said to these countries that we want to support them on the transition to democracy. It shouldn't just be words. At a time when they are facing some intimidation from Russia we should be standing alongside them with some concrete help,” he said.

Cameron did not state how the aid would be divided between countries but said the allocated funds would be spent on "strengthening democratic institutions of these countries, struggling against corruption and for the reformation of police, healthcare, banking and tax systems to help them counter intimidation from the Kremlin”.

He said it was in the best interest of the UK and other European nations for their Eastern European neighbours to be stable and democratic nations.

"The long-term interest for the UK is that we see strong and stable states on the borders of Eastern Europe. It is a long-term investment to prevent the next Ukraine [crisis],” he said.

"It is the building blocks of democracy. Strong institutions that give the people of that country a view that they are being looked after, they are not swung by possible intimidation or other messages coming from other countries,” the British PM noted.

Meanwhile the financial aid package will be distributed over a period of time to Georgia and other Eastern European countries in 2015 and 2016, Cameron said.