“I bought a ticket to prison.” Experts don’t understand what’s going on in Saakashvili’s head
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili published a photo of his ticket to Tbilisi on social networks, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Saakashvili published on his Facebook page a scan of a ticket for October 2, when elections will be held in the country, thus confirming his intentions announced at the beginning of the month. He said that he “has no personal ambitions” and does not apply for any positions, but wants to take part in the “salvation of Georgia.”
Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili has already stated on this occasion that Saakashvili will face prison upon his return.
“As soon as he sets foot on our soil, he will be detained and taken to prison... No one in the world can interfere with the implementation of the law. Those who try will end up in prison. We guarantee this in the name of the law and the state... Saakashvili has been convicted, he made irreparable mistakes and caused great harm to the country,” Garibashvili said.
Kiev political scientist Alexander Bulavin does not believe in the seriousness of the intentions of the ex-president of Georgia.
“What Saakashvili is doing is more bravado. We must understand that Saakashvili knows very well how many enemies he has in power now. I think that everything will end with the fact that ultimately he will find some very plausible, beautiful excuse and still will not fly to Georgia,” the expert believes.
International affairs expert at the Ukrainian Institute of Politics Vladimir Volya is also skeptical about Saakashvili’s intention to return to Georgia.
“It’s difficult to understand what’s going on in Saakashvili’s head, but for him, a trip to Georgia is really a guaranteed landing in a Georgian prison. Thus, Saakashvili bought a ticket to a Georgian prison. The question is whether he is ready to go to prison and be under investigation. Undoubtedly, his supporters will protest. But I don’t think they will achieve his release,” says the international expert.
“Of course, his trip to Georgia will cause an intensification of the crisis, but it will be a crisis with an unpredictable result for Saakashvili himself, as well as for the party in power, and for everyone. That is, either he is really ready to sit in prison for several years and he doesn’t care anymore, or he just staged a show, and at the last moment there will be some reason not to fly to Georgia,” Volya believes.
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