Gov’t “irresponsibility”, not heavy rainfalls a problem – Saakashvili

Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s currently imprisoned former President, on Wednesday claimed the current Georgian Dream authorities had been engaged in shifting blame onto natural disasters, rather than admitting their own “irresponsibility”. 

 

Responding to heavy rainfall in Tbilisi on Tuesday, creating serious problems in the capital city,  Saakashvili said in his social media post “houses, roads, resorts are being destroyed in our country, and some people think that natural disasters are to blame”.  “I remember very well that every time it rained, almost all the streets of Batumi [in western Georgia] would flood, with the previous authorities blaming heavy rainfalls”, Saakashvili said, claiming his Government had arranged drainage systems and resolved the problem. 

 

“Today it is already clear that we are dealing with irresponsibility of the Government, because of which our population is suffering”, Saakashvili said, adding “If we want to, everything can be fixed”. 

 

Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021 on his clandestine return after eight years, and is now serving his six-year-term for abuse of power while in office.