Parliament Speaker: public rejected Saakashvili’s 2021 “staged” return, “radicalism”

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said the Georgian public had responded with rejection to the “radicalism” and the “staged movie” of the 2021 clandestine return to the country of the now-imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Papuashvili said the domestic public had “seen many times the kind of movie” the former official, who was arrested on his return due to his convictions on cases of abuse of power, was attempting to facilitate with the move.

In the 30-year history of our independence, we have already seen all this - the kind of movie that Saakashvili tried to stage - we have already seen it many times. That is why the Georgian citizens responded [appropriately] to all kinds of radicalism”, the Parliament official said. 

“The absurdity is that they want to talk about Mikheil Saakashvili as a democrat, including in the [European Parliament] resolution”, Papuashvili said in reference to the document adopted by the EP on February 16 that said Bidzina Ivanishvili, the former Prime Minister and the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, was “responsible” for the controversial circumstances around the health of Saakashvili.

That is why we are upset that the resolution of the European Parliament, which directly contains misinformation in the first sentence, has become a source of misinformation [about Saakashvili and his treatment]”, he added. 

Papuashvili claimed Saakashvili had “sneaked into the country precisely to organise a revolution”, in contrast to the wishes of citizens of the country, who he said wanted to see “development and peace” in the country instead.

[T]hat is why the Georgian citizens responded to all kinds of radicalism - they no longer follow any kind of radicalism, because people want one thing: to see this country develop peacefully, to be independent, to be free and prosperous”, he concluded. 

Saakashvili is now serving a six-year term for two separate cases of abuse of power while in office, with three other cases involving his term pending.