“A resistance movement requires preparation; it is not a matter of simply crying out and hoping something will happen of its own accord. It needs people of strategic vision and great courage,” writes former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili on social media.

“This speaks precisely to the present moment. Do you know how and why the United National Movement was founded? In 2001, a close friend of mine and a very fine journalist, Giorgi Sanaia, Vakho’s brother, was murdered. A great many people took to the streets in protest, demanding Shevardnadze’s resignation. It was a spontaneous, unorganised protest that, by the third day, had fizzled out and ultimately came to nothing.

It was at that very moment that I said to Levan Berdzenishvili that we needed to found a broad popular movement with the explicit aim of bringing about a revolution. And so the UNM took shape, a movement with a great many activists across the regions, all of whom understood that a revolution had to be made. We established a school in Tskhvarichamia, where we trained every activist in revolutionary tactics.

I harboured no illusions that Shevardnadze and the corrupt establishment would relinquish power without a revolution. Patarkatsishvili and Ivanishvili were already lying in wait. Shevardnadze himself wanted Gia Chanturia, head of Georgian Oil, as his successor within the family’s circle of influence. But once they falsified the elections, as had been entirely expected, the revolutionary scenario brought their plans crashing down. For that to happen, however, a resistance movement must be prepared in advance; it cannot simply be wished into existence. It needs people of strategic vision and great courage,” Saakashvili writes.