The “Demented President” on the Judgment Seat
”His life is like a ‘strange tragicomedy’.” This is the evaluation of former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili by Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Federal Security Council.
Saakashvili came to power after the “Rose Revolution”, became “stateless” after losing power, and is now in a Georgian prison as a Ukrainian. His lawyer said he may suffer from 34 different diseases, including dementia and tuberculosis, and is awaiting evaluation by foreign medical experts. In the spring of this year, he twice declared a “hunger strike”, requesting to go to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, for medical treatment. Georgian judicial authorities said that his medical services were guaranteed, but he “voluntarily chose not to take the medicine”.
involved in murder
Saakashvili has been involved in so many criminal cases, which is rare among former presidents of various countries.
He is involved in a murder case. In January 2018, a court in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, sentenced him to three years in prison in absentia for “abusing the power of pardon”. The reason is that in 2008, Saakashvili used presidential prerogatives to pardon the four policemen convicted in the Jejvirliani murder case.
Geziviliani, 28, a bank employee, was found dead in the suburbs of Tbilisi in January 2006 with multiple injuries on his body. According to local media investigations, the matter was related to a quarrel in a bar. The then Inspector General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Sanozer held a birthday party in the bar that night. The wife of the then Minister of the Interior, Merabishvili, Sarakaya also attended, and also brought her friend Mesuradze. Mesuradze is Georgy Viliani’s girlfriend.
Coincidentally, Gheggivilliani also went to the bar that day. I ran into my girlfriend and a strange man together, and the two had a big argument. The girlfriend explained that she didn’t know these people, they were acquaintances of friends. An angry Ghegiovliani left the bar. Soon, he was stuffed into a car by a group of people and taken to the suburbs. His body was found near a cemetery the next morning.
After the case came to light, the public outraged and directly caused Saakashvili and his party’s support to plummet. He also later admitted that the case was a stain on his political reputation and he was “partially responsible” for the case. But he did not admit that he pardoned the police involved in order to “prevent further investigation”, insisting that the pardon power is the legal power of the president.
Saakashvili was also involved in a beating case and was sentenced to 6 years in prison in absentia by the Tbilisi court in June 2018 for “organizing the beating of a member of parliament”. The one who was beaten was an opposition MP named Gerashvili. In 2005, the congressman criticized Saakashvili and his family in an interview with the media. Not long after, he was severely “cleaned up” by several strong men on the street. In the second year, the ruling party voted to disqualify Gerashvili in the parliament by virtue of its numerical advantage, on the grounds that he continued to manage his own construction company as a member, which violated the constitution. The then mayor of Tbilisi also said the company may have been involved in a school fire. Opposition lawmakers refused to vote, saying it was “persecution of political opponents”. Gerashvili linked the incident with the beating incident, saying that the root cause was that the company had a financial dispute with the authorities for the construction of the presidential residence and was retaliated against. The school was burned, and “someone is messing with me”.
Saakashvili is also accused of illegally dispersing an opposition rally in 2007, illegally confiscating the assets of businessman Patal Katishvili, and illegally embezzling millions of dollars in state budget funds between 2009 and 2012. It is still pending. Georgian Prime Minister Gary Bashvili said Saakashvili would “serve a long sentence and serve all his sentences.”
Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze.
“I love Reagan and Margaret Thatcher”
As a criminal, Saakashvili gave the impression of being domineering. But he once came to power under the banner of “democracy”.
Saakashvili, who grew up in the Soviet era, once said: “I have had this idea since I was a child. The West is an absolute paradise, while we live in hell.” In 1990, he entered Kiev National University majoring in international law. At that time, he shouted “I love Reagan and Mrs. Thatcher”. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, he went to study in France and Italy to study “human rights issues”. Later, he received a scholarship from the United States to study at Columbia University and George Washington University. His mentor was Gene Sharp, known as the “Father of the Color Revolution”.
After returning to Georgia, he was elected to Parliament in 1995. Five years later, at the age of 33, he was promoted by then President Shevardnadze to become the youngest Minister of Justice of Georgia. Shevardnadze, nicknamed “Silver Fox”, once served as the foreign minister of the Soviet Union, but fell into the hands of a “high apprentice” whom he single-handedly selected.
One day in 2001, Saakashvili rushed into a cabinet meeting with a camera crew. He waved a few photos of the villa in front of the camera, and asked the officials present how they could afford the villa with their meager salaries. After scolding “government corruption”, he announced his immediate resignation. It made him famous. He went downhill, announced the establishment of the “United National Movement Party”, and advocated “anti-corruption and reform”, which attracted a large number of students and poor people to join.
Behind Saakashvili’s rise is a typical trick of the United States to interfere in the internal affairs of foreign countries. Hu Zhiyong, a researcher at the Institute of International Studies of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the vice-chairman and secretary-general of the national “Central-South Asia Security Council”, told the Global People reporter that the United States will select some people from the elites of some countries for “training”, and then Use elections and other means to send these “pawns” to high positions. The selection criteria include: whether the person is greedy for money, whether he yearns for the American system, whether he is dissatisfied with the political and economic system of his country, and so on. Saakashvili was quickly spotted by the United States.
In the winter of 2003, Saakashvili’s party and other opposition parties refused to accept the results of the parliamentary elections on the grounds of vote count fraud. Since then, he has frequently appeared at anti-government rallies with roses to encourage people to demonstrate. The U.S. State Department also issued a statement accusing the election of “violating democratic principles.”
Shevardnadze, who was “forced into the palace”, chose to resign. In January 2004, Saakashvili was elected president. A Russian media reporter based in Tbilisi wrote: “People don’t understand what Saakashvili is talking about, and they are not interested in what he said, but every word of his can arouse the joy of the people.” Even The policeman on duty on the street also gave a thumbs up to the reporter and said: “Misha (Georgians’ nickname for Saakashvili) is right.”
In Saakashvili’s heart, the West, especially the United States, is “right.” of”. He appointed a group of officials with Western backgrounds. Foreign Minister Zurabishvili is a French citizen, and Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff Kapanadze graduated from the US Military Academy. He also hired an American as a consultant, paid by USAID. When US President George W. Bush visited Georgia in 2005, he held hands with Saakashvili and called Georgia a “beacon of democracy.”
Why do Americans favor Saakashvili? This has a lot to do with the “de-Russification” led by him. Hu Zhiyong said that after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Americans actively searched for people who wanted to “de-Russify” in the newly independent countries within the territory of the former Soviet Union. And Saakashvili engaged in “de-Russification” as soon as he came to power, which made Americans feel “very right.”
On August 8, 2008, Saakashvili launched an attack on the South Ossetia region, and the Georgia-Russia War broke out. Due to the disparity in strength between the two sides, coupled with the fact that the United States and the European Union, which had originally promised to support them verbally, stood by and stood by, Georgia quickly fell behind. Saakashvili bit his tie nervously at the news conference. Five days later, Georgia was defeated and immediately announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia and withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Independent States. Russia-Georgia relations fell to a freezing point.
“Beautiful on the outside, rotten on the inside”
Zakaashvili, a scholar at the Caucasus Institute of Peace, said: “Saakashvili tried his best to make Georgia have the appearance of a democratic country, but in the end (the country) is like a whitewashed dilapidated house, which is beautiful on the outside and rotten on the inside.
” Before the stage, Saakashvili promised to build a “true democratic society”, clean up corruption and revive the economy. After taking office, he openly engaged in corruption, ruthlessly suppressed dissidents, and restricted freedom of speech. In addition, the Georgian economy has been hit hard by the financial crisis, and about 50% of the population is below the poverty line. All this makes the Georgians gradually sober. Voters voted Saakashvili out in 2013, and the pro-Russian “Georgian Dream” coalition won the election and began to liquidate him. Hu Zhiyong said that the people of Georgia have received socialist education for a long time, and they are unwilling to fully westernize according to the ideas of the United States. Saakashvili’s administration has caused dissatisfaction among the Georgian people, and the Americans believe that he is no longer useful.
On April 3, 2008, Saakashvili met with then US President George W. Bush (right) at the NATO summit.
On August 8, 2008, the Georgian army launched an attack on South Ossetia.
On December 5, 2017, Saakashvili was arrested by law enforcement officers at his home in Ukraine.
Feeling that it was difficult for him to gain a foothold in Georgia, he turned his attention to Ukraine. He appeared on Independence Square in Kiev and appealed to young Ukrainians to occupy government buildings and parliament just like he did back then. Behind these moves is his ambition to seek a “second spring” in his political career.
On May 29, 2015, he obtained Ukrainian citizenship, and the next day he was appointed governor of Odessa, an important town in southern Ukraine. Ukrainian President Poroshenko, who reused Saakashvili, was the principal when he was studying at Kiev University.
Saakashvili was not satisfied. In 2016, he resigned as governor to form a new party, intending to run for prime minister. He publicly criticized Poroshenko for corruption and cronyism. Poroshenko had his Ukrainian citizenship stripped the following year. Previously, Saakashvili had voluntarily renounced his Georgian citizenship in order to engage in politics in Ukraine. As a stateless person, he once forcibly broke into Ukraine to “recover his nationality”, but was arrested by law enforcement officers at home, so he had to go to Poland. After he was sentenced in absentia by a Tbilisi court in 2018, the court issued a warrant for him. As soon as he returned to Georgia, he would be caught immediately.
In May 2019, the current Ukrainian President Zelensky restored Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship and assigned him a senior position in the Ukrainian National Reform Commission. The strange thing is that he returned to Georgia in October 2021, and was immediately arrested by the police and sent to prison.
Why did Saakashvili “fall into the trap”? In April of this year, Georgian Prime Minister Garibashvili said: “Saakashvili entered Georgia illegally for only one purpose: to launch a coup in our country. At that time, there was news that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine would break out between November and December. Saakashvili The purpose of Kashvili’s entry is to open a ‘second front’ here.” He said that the current Georgian government “is not ready for military action (against Russia)”, but if Saakashvili comes to power, “it will be will do so”.
After the Russian-Ukrainian conflict broke out, Saakashvili sent a handwritten note through his lawyer saying, “Ukraine will keep its distance from Russia for a long time, and become the main ‘power broker’ in Europe with Poland.” He also said a lot of political rhetoric, true or false, but there is one sentence that he may be serious about. “The ‘Rose Revolution’ made Georgia realize that launching a revolution is far easier than reforming a failed country!” Hu Zhiyong said that Saakashvili, like Ukrainian Yushchenko and others, were both trained by the United States “Color Revolution” leader. Once the Americans find that they are unreliable, they will quickly abandon them. Saakashvili’s “tragic comedy” has its roots here.
Mikhail Saakashvili
was born in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia in 1967. He graduated from Kiev University and later studied in France, Italy and the United States. Former President of Georgia (2004-2013), Governor of Odessa Oblast, Ukraine (2015-2016). Arrested in Georgia in October 2021, convicted in multiple criminal cases and currently serving time.
