Georgian PM's public letter on Mikheil Saakashvili
Georgian PM's public letter on Mikheil Saakashvili

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has posted a public letter on Facebook saying “the most logical version behind Saakashvili’s arrival to Georgia was a strong hope of a coup d’etat.”

PM claims “Saakashvili’s revolutionary intentions were doomed to failure in all cases. They also failed to take into account the fact that instead of the daunted state institutions of 2003, we now have well-organized state institutions.”

“According to his plan, even if he suddenly appeared on Rustaveli Avenue on October 3, the police would have used a water cannon or sparkling gas at its best to disperse the gathering of maximum 5,000 people and arrest Saakashvili with ease. Saakashvili may no longer remember that Giorgi Gakharia is no longer a prime minister of the country and the governing team is as united today as ever before,” PM stressed.

The Head of the government rebuffed the various versions that motivated Saakashvili when he planned his “reckless” arrival in Georgia.

“I consider the version of Mikheil Saakashvili planning and deliberately going to prison to be absurd, especially even if he wanted to. He would have entered the country and gone to prison not as discreetly like a burglar – by violating the law – but as a man of strong will (no matter how irrelevant it may sound in reference to Saakashvili). By doing so, he would have made a case that litigation against him is unsubstantiated prompting political imprisonment. And now that he has entered Georgia by committing a new crime, he has himself made this claim groundless of even formal basis. Similarly, shifting the blame on his drug addiction is also absurd to my mind. No matter how addicted a person is, he always has enough time to stay away from illogical steps,” PM asserted.

Garibashvili wrote that Saakashvili’s psychological and mental condition before and after his imprisonment changed in a radical manner. According to the PM, “the UNM is worried that their leader is in a difficult situation and demands his immediate release from prison. He claims to be neither Merabishvili nor Akhalaia and does not intend to tolerate staying in prison for a long time. This mindset of Saakashvili was taken heavily by his team, however, they have no idea what to do further.”

“The question naturally arises on grounds of success anticipated by Saakashvili and a sense of failure arises in the search for logical reasons for Saakashvili’s arrival. I think that the answer to this question should be found in the recent history of Georgia and in their past performance witnessed during the UNM rule.

We all well remember that Georgia was allegorically the First Swallow to restore sovereign independence. There was great enthusiasm among people, but we had no experience in governance and soon after regaining the independence we let the first president be murdered. After that, Shevardnadze in his old age arrived in Georgia and during his presidency the state got completely weakened due to the debauchery of Mkhedrioni and extreme corruption all over the country. Against this background, Saakashvili and the UNM easily gained power in an under-immunized country in 2003 by overthrowing the government – by throwing stones. The state and institutions were so weakened that Shevardnadze could no longer control even his personal security service.

The UNM caused all kinds of trouble to the country for 9 years. They had a Card Blanche – committed multiple crimes, including the foreclosures of almost all media outlets to package all their failures as success stories. Saakashvili himself sang glorifying songs about himself and believed in his own lies. In fact, the UNM is a group of losers with criminal tendencies, who cannot plan and manage anything properly. This is the root of the issue. Saakashvili planned to arrive in Georgia and overthrow the government with exactly the same “success” as he had “successfully” ruled the country in his time. So is his team – the UNM – and that is why their 9 years in government and 9 years in opposition have become an 18-year history of failure.

At the same time, they also failed to take into account the fact that instead of the daunted state institutions of 2003, we now have well-organized state institutions. They thought they could easily implement their plan. However, even in this case, they became victims of their own lies. For years, the UNM and its propaganda party television stations have been trying to establish a false perception of a “collapsed state” and this lie is clearly self-evident. In fact, instead of a “collapsed state”, Saakashvili got challenged by a well-organized state system in Georgia.

All this explains the radical change in Saakashvili’s mental state before and after his imprisonment – he entered the prison with a smile and now he has nothing else to think but to somehow get out of prison,” PM underscored.

Law enforcers arrested Mikheil Saakashvili in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on October 1. He is charged with several criminal offences.