TBILISI, March 12. /TASS/. Ukraine sent Georgia’s former President Mikhail Saakashvili back home to destabilize the situation in Georgia and drag the country into combat operations, Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili said on Sunday.
"The outbreak of the war in Ukraine was expected back in November [2021], or in December at the latest. We had information about that, including from our colleagues and partners. When did Saakashvili arrive in Georgia? On October 1. Saakashvili was commissioned here deliberately with a key goal to stage a coup here and drag the country into the war at the right moment. We have no doubts about that today," he said in an interview with the Imedi television channel.
According to the Georgian prime minister, "it would probably be a kind of a relief for Ukraine should Russia shift its focus" on Georgia. He said that the country would "have turned into a firing range" if Saakashvili’s United National Movement opposition party were in power and Ukraine "would have won time".
Saakashvili secretly arrived in Georgia a day before the municipal elections in October 2021, was arrested and placed in prison in the city of Rustavi. He went on a hunger strike claiming to be a political prisoner. When his health deteriorated, he was transferred to a prison hospital and later - to a military hospital. In December 2021, he was transferred back to prison but in May 2022 was placed in the Tbilisi-based Vivamed private clinic, where he has been staying ever since. He has repeatedly said that he had developed serious symptoms in custody, but the Georgian authorities say he is pretending to be sick.
In Georgia, Saakashvili is facing four criminal cases and has been sentenced to three and six years behind bars under two of them. On October 20, 2022, he was faced with charges of illegally crossing into Georgia punishable by up to five years in prison.