Saakashvili, expelled from Ukraine, threatens to rock Georgia

Expelled from Ukraine, fugitive Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has again turned his attention to his homeland, hoping to provoke a political crisis, early elections and ensure a return to Tbilisi.

Saakashvili announced such plans the day before during a meeting with the Georgian diaspora in Liege, Belgium, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports with reference to Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

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Shortly before this, the fugitive ex-president of Georgia was already gathering his few supporters in Philadelphia.

According to the publication, during the Belgian presentation a little more people gathered, but opponents of Saakashvili also appeared and tried unsuccessfully to get to the event.

To those present, the ex-president presented the action plan of his movement “Home Together”, the meaning of which is the return of emigrants to Georgia, and Saakashvili himself to the power of this country.

“We must save Georgia from the dragon that has settled there!” said Saakashvili, referring to the current shadow “master of Georgia,” billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.

And in an interview with the Russian edition of Deutsche Welle, Saakashvili explained that his associates will seek early parliamentary elections in Georgia: “I think that this year we will achieve early parliamentary elections in Georgia. Yes, they don’t want to, but they have to be forced. If they don’t want to, we’ll force them; if they don’t know how to organize, we’ll teach them. Electronic voting, no majoritarian districts where only local oligarchs win. No, party elections.”

Grigol Vashadze, Saakashvili’s comrade-in-arms who lost the presidential election in 2018, gave an interview to the Ukrainian project “Krym”, where he called it a good thing that the West is “pulling Georgia by the scruff of the neck” into NATO and the EU.

“We need to work more with the international community, because they are absolutely outraged by the horror and lawlessness that they saw during the presidential elections. Georgia is no longer a pillar of democracy in the South Caucasus. Unfortunately, we have rolled back a long way. This is stated in the report of NDI, IRI and OSCE. Not to mention what international observers said in private conversations - their reviews in private conversations are an order of magnitude more severe than what is said in political language in the reports,” Vashadze said.

According to him, the West is forced to “drag Georgia by the scruff of the neck” towards democracy and membership in NATO and the EU, although Georgia itself needs this first of all.

“When our main allies are forced to drag you almost by the scruff of the neck to where you should run for the sake of your children and grandchildren, then this run pushes away our main foreign policy guidelines - full membership in NATO and the EU. How should I accept you into these democratic clubs of the most civilized and advanced, successful nations on Earth, when you do not want to do what you must do yourself in order for you to live in a free society? Neither Brussels nor Washington will help you if you don’t help yourself,” Vashadze said.

Official Tbilisi comments with restraint on meetings of supporters of the ex-president. Thus, Chairman of Parliament Irakli Kobakhidze recalled the criminal prosecution of Saakashvili. “If he tries to raise his head, then he will be preventively punished by the Georgian society, as it almost happened now in Belgium; the authorities, if necessary, will help the society with this.”