Ex-President Saakashvili: Was I truly an autocrat? I opened horizons for Georgia

14:23, 06.12.2024

“My authoritarian regime? What kind of autocrat was I?! Despite my strong disapproval of November 7, and despite the involvement of Russian oligarchs and Russia’s influence in everything I opposed, I voluntarily stepped down from the presidency and reduced my term,” Mikheil Saakashvili asserted during his court hearing via remote connection from the Vivamedi clinic.

Saakashvili emphasized that he peacefully transferred power in 2012.

“Am I truly an autocrat?! I am the one who opened up the horizons of the entire world for Georgia, who introduced countless new technologies and established a new education system. If we do not see this fight through to the end, they will shut everything down, arrest every politician, and inevitably close every television station. We must be ready for this and transition to internet broadcasting. What a brutal nine years it has been, people?! That was the most prosperous era in Georgia’s long history—a model for every country,” Saakashvili declared.

By - Elene Dobordjginidze

Politics

Mikheil Saakashvili