Saakashvili: Georgia is losing Western support and increasingly closer to Russia
Mikhail Saakashvili. Photo: Alexey Vitvitsky / RIA Novosti
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said that the country is losing support from the West and increasingly closer to Russia. He wrote about this on his Facebook page.
According to him, talks about deepening relations with Russia and lifting diplomatic restrictions are allegedly being heard in Georgia more and more loudly. He believes that “agents of the Russian special services” have been introduced into the country. He also stressed that the Georgian television and radio space was allegedly filled with Russian content and propaganda.
The politician stressed that the projects of cruise terminals and a deep-water port, which were supposed to become a “window to Europe” for Georgia, were suspended, and the main infrastructure project instead, according to him, was the construction of a new road to Russia, which has no economic significance for Tbilisi.
According to Saakashvili, Georgia's share in trade with the European Union is 25 percent, while the country has become “much more dependent on the Russian market.”
The ex-president of Georgia announced the need to reactivate the process of European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Georgia and improve relations with “disinterested allies in the EU and NATO” – the Baltic states and the Visegrad Group.
Mikhail Saakashvili was detained in Georgia on October 1. He returned to the country after eight years in exile to take part in the protests. Earlier, he was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison for the murder of a banker and beating of a deputy. On November 20, the former president ended his hunger strike, which he had been holding for 50 days. This happened after he was transferred from a prison hospital in Tbilisi to a military hospital in Gori.
