Mikheil Saakashvili accuses former officials Paliko Kublashvili and Nika Gilauri of campaigning against him

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has accused former officials Paliko Kublashvili and Nika Gilauri of campaigning against him and undermining the United National Movement (UNM) over the past decade.

In a social media post, Saakashvili claimed that since 2014, Kublashvili has been “encouraging former comrades to run separately” and has promised them funding to split the opposition vote.

“I have never written about this before. Ivanishvili’s ban on political parties is, in fact, an admission of failure — a recognition that after years of manipulation, he was unable to eliminate the United National Movement. The reality is that in the 2024 elections, despite being weakened and split into two parties, the National Movement and its offshoot together won a combined 39% of the vote, according to IPSOS exit polls. Naturally, Ivanishvili tried to manipulate these results, allocating both groups a total of 20% — repeating the same tactic Shevardnadze used in 2003. Even in 2021, during my imprisonment, the UNM still managed to secure 40% of the vote in the local elections.

Before that, Ivanishvili resorted to criminal prosecutions, violence, the expulsion of our members from city councils, and blatant bribery to persuade people to leave our faction. Since 2014, he has used former UNM MP Paliko Kublashvili for this purpose — encouraging his former comrades to go their separate ways in exchange for promised financial support.

Those who split were told they didn’t need to support Ivanishvili — only to campaign under the slogan “Neither Misha nor Bidzina.” If Davit Bakradze hadn’t adopted this slogan in 2018 and run separately, despite the widespread fraud, our candidate Grigol Vashadze would have won the presidential election in the first round.

In last year’s elections, Ivanishvili even brought out my former prime minister — a multimillionaire, unlike me or 90% of my government. His wealth stems largely from his brother’s “Bank of Georgia,” whose interests are deeply intertwined with Ivanishvili and, more importantly, with Russia, where he has been laundering money — a fact now finally confirmed. He has also been lobbying intensively for Ivanishvili in the West.

Gilauri invested his “own” money in the election campaign on the condition that there would be no party unification and that my name would be mentioned as little as possible in the media. Indeed, they largely erased my presence, while Gilauri appeared everywhere, claiming that all the reforms during my presidency were his doing, and insisting he had never been a member of the UNM. Yet during my government, he served first as Minister of Energy, then as Minister of Finance, and finally as Prime Minister. I doubt he even realized he was supposedly “not a member” of the National Movement.

After the elections ended, Mtavari Arkhi was shut down, and Gilauri vanished again — turning his attention to lobbying for Ivanishvili in the West. I am certain that Ivanishvili used financial leverage during the last local elections and continues to provide a comfortable living for those whose primary mission is to shout “No to Misha,” ensuring that Ivanishvili himself remains scarcely mentioned.

It is worth noting that those who directly or indirectly accepted money from the oligarch over the years are not protected from his repression. Ultimately, Ivanishvili despises most those to whom he gives money,” Saakashvili said.

Concluding his statement, Saakashvili called for unity among pro-democracy forces.

“We must learn from our mistakes and unite. We should not be like the Russian opposition, which turned from opposing Putin to attacking each other. Strength is in unity,” he added.