“This was not my first attempt to return to Georgia. A year earlier, before the parliamentary elections, I boarded a boat in one of the European Union countries and set off for Georgia. En route, I joined a large rally at Freedom Square via a live broadcast directly from the boat’s wheelhouse,” Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili wrote on social media.

According to him, he sacrificed the best years of his life to the struggle.

“At the end of September 2021, I left my beautiful, newly built house on the outskirts of Kyiv (it was the best house I’d ever owned), went to my office in President Zelenskyy’s administration, where my large office with reception area was located directly above Zelenskyy’s office and where I had a very high salary. I put my affairs in order and set off directly for Odesa, my beloved city, where I had previously been governor and from which I built a 230-kilometre road to the European Union border.

I embraced Alisa one last time and headed towards the port, which, during my governorship, we had renamed from Ilyichevsk, named after Lenin, to Chornomorsk. I boarded a storm boat and set off for Georgia.

This was not my first attempt to return to Georgia. A year earlier, before the parliamentary elections, I boarded a boat in one of the European Union countries and went to Georgia. En route, I joined a large rally at Freedom Square via live broadcast directly from the boat’s wheelhouse. In Russian territorial waters in the Sochi area, approximately five kilometres out, the boat was being tossed considerably by waves. Consequently, this turbulence was also felt on screens in Tbilisi. One could have gained the impression that the cameraman’s hand was shaking. After the broadcast, we continued our journey towards Batumi.

On the way, I was reading Churchill’s biography. Apparently, our telephone signal was intercepted, and an alarm was raised in Batumi. Special forces were brought to readiness (as their fighters informed us), and Ivanishvili’s Minister of Internal Affairs urgently went there.

Meanwhile, a great storm broke out, which seriously slowed us down; waves crashed over us, all the furniture in the wheelhouse was smashed, and along the way, my COVID, still contracted in Europe, worsened considerably; I had a fever, and my oxygen saturation dropped to 87. It seemed as though every factor was working against us, and I decided to turn back.

Therefore, in 2021, I refused the boat option and came by a more reliable, though riskier in terms of detection, overland route. Why did I abandon my very comfortable life in Ukraine, where I was held in great esteem? Simply because I could no longer watch Georgia’s destruction at such an accelerated pace.

After 20 June, the protest movement also gained significant momentum, and I did not believe it was right to call for resistance from afar, from a safe distance. Around that time, I read a book by the philosopher Nassim Taleb, which I had bought in Amsterdam. The book presented the theory: if you want to win a battle, you must inevitably put your own skin in the game. And I decided to put my own skin in the game, not simply to appeal to past merits but to risk everything in a new struggle.

Naturally, I knew that I might be killed on the way, that I would almost certainly end up in prison, that I might be treated badly there (in reality, they poisoned and beat me, which exceeded even my expectations), but both then and now, I had faith in the Georgian people’s love of freedom and capacity for struggle.

Today marks four years since I have been in prison. Telephone communication is forbidden to me, as are meetings with fellow fighters, but my fighting spirit has not diminished for a minute, neither when I was at death’s door nor now as I await October 4.

Yes, I have sacrificed the best years of my life to this struggle, but I know with certainty that even better years lie ahead. From prison, I have met and befriended many young fellow fighters in absentia. They give me tremendous energy, and it is my duty to stand beside them in building a new Georgia.

Everyone on Rustaveli on October 4. Everyone for Georgia and for freedom,” Saakashvili wrote.