PM Garibashvili claims Saakashvili returned to open second front in Georgia

Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili claims that currently imprisoned former President Milkheil Saakashvili returned to Georgia at the end of September 2021 as there were reports that a war could begin shortly in Ukraine and the third president, who held the post of the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, should open the second front in Georgia.

 

Garibashvili did not identify the source behind the information, noting that there is information which the PM may say publicly, while there are confidential ones as well.

 

“As the head of the government, I have a lot of information.  There was information that the war in Ukraine could begin in November or December. Saakashvili arrived for this purpose to make grounds for the opening of the second front,” Garibashvili said today, adding that recent statements by Ukrainian officials, “unfortunately,” have also confirmed this.

 

He also said that if Saakashvili were in office, Georgia would be the “second Mariupol.”

 

Responding to recent audio recording reportedly between the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili and a Russian oligarch over “averting sanctions,” Garibashvili said that the recording“is fake and such types of disinformation aims to drag the country into the war.”

 

The PM pledged that neither legal entities or individuals will be able to use the Georgian territory to circumvent sanctions, noting that the approach “will not be reviewed.”

 

Saakashvili, who holds Ukrainian citizenship, returned to Georgia after eight years in political exile, several days before October 1, 2021 municipal elections.

 

He said that his goal was to support the opposition to change the Georgian Dream authorities via elections.