Ruling party head: Saakashvili’s Batumi video is fake, Saakashvili is a ‘clown’

Head of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Irakli Kobakhidze says that Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s recently released video allegedly from the Georgian city of Batumi is a fake and that Saakashvili is a ‘clown.’ 

• Ex-president Saakashvili says he is already in Georgia, urges people to take to streets after elections

I can say for sure that the video is fake. Saakashvili is not in Georgia,” Kobakhidze said.  

The Georgian Interior Ministry also claims that Saakashvili has not crossed the Georgian border.

United National Movement opposition party leader Zaal Udumashvili says that he does not know when and how Saakashvili crossed into Georgia. 

I learned about it from social media earlier today. The most important thing is that he is in Georgia,” Udumashvili said. 

 Saakashvili released a live video allegedly from the Georgian coastal city of Batumi late last night and said that he is already in Georgia ahead of tomorrow’s municipal elections. 

In the video Saakashvili has urged the public to vote for the United National Movement (UNM) in the elections and if not the UNM, then for some other, smaller, ‘real opposition parties’ and not for the Georgian Dream ruling party (GD) or ex-PM Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party. 

He said that he will not appear in public until election day is over and called on Georgians to take to the streets on October 3. 

Saakashvili, who faces a number of criminal charges in Georgia, said in the video that he has ‘put his life at risk’ by returning.