“We did not lay our necks on the line for Georgia so that those who should now be fighting Ivanishvili would once again choose me as their principal target,” former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has taken to social media.

The former president reiterated his belief in unity, but warned that a unity so fragile that it collapses at the slightest provocation, and that seeks to impose censorship upon him, will never possess the strength needed to challenge the regime.

“I have always been and remain in favour of unity. But if that unity is so brittle that it falls apart at the drop of a hat and intends to censor me, it will have no force whatsoever in the fight against the regime.

It is plain to anyone not blinded by personal ego that I am Ivanishvili’s top problem. I command the greatest public support in Georgia, which is precisely why I have spent more time behind bars than anyone else and received the heaviest sentences. And yet I have never once claimed any desire for sole leadership; I have said so repeatedly.

Back in 2016, Ivanishvili engineered a split within the United National Movement through various intermediaries, cleaving off a large faction and significantly strengthening the regime as a result. In 2018, Bakradze was installed as a counterweight to us, which scuppered the opposition’s victory in the presidential election. In 2024, Ivanishvili brought Gilauri onto the stage and invested ten million dollars in him, effectively preventing any challenge to the elections on a unified ticket. On top of all that, I was completely blacklisted by the opposition television channels, even though I played a decisive role in founding and sustaining at least one of them. As a result, the opposition was unable to hold on to its votes,” Saakashvili wrote.

Saakashvili went on to say that the time for home truths has arrived.

“I had thought that after all of this, we had learned our lesson and moved on to a different track. It appears, however, that some have drawn rather different conclusions. We owe each other honesty.

How has it come to pass that the Alliance has spent all this time without issuing a single statement on the real problems besetting ordinary people: the dire poverty, the laws on vehicles and bottles, and a great many other concrete grievances, yet finds ample time to level criticism at me?

I have never accepted censorship from a dictatorship in my day, not from the Ukrainian authorities, not from Russia.

Friends, adjust your aim. It is high time you freed yourselves from using me as an excuse, focused entirely on the matter at hand, and if things do not work out, stop blaming Misha for obstructing you – just work harder,” Saakashvili wrote.