Interview with Mikheil Saakashvili

Tbilisi: Interview of with the third president of Georgia, the former governor of Odessa Regional State Administration and the leader of the party “Movement of the New Forces”, Mikheil Saakashvili on the air of the “Choice” program of “Rustavi-2” TV company.

– According to your estimation, what events have become witnesses today not only in Georgia and Ukraine, but all over the world?

“We were waiting for this, we had our press center mobilized in advance, 10-15 security guards, we reinforced the doors inside the apartment to gain time and have time to gather people, for the same purpose I climbed onto the roof. I told them if they touched me, we could all go down together. While we were on the roof, our supporters managed to gather near the house.

– Your appearance on the roof is a simple, but brilliant decision, you have won time and collected people. You mentioned that you were asked not to approach law enforcement officials, otherwise you could fall off the roof where they tried to detain you. Maybe that was what the Russian media had in mind when they said in the news that you allegedly threatened to jump off?

– I told them that it is not safe and we can all fall down, the Security Service realized that this is actually the case, and at that time our people managed to mobilize. The situation is very simple – the charges that were presented to me are so stupid, they threatened me if I did not stop. The Security Service of Ukraine will come up with something to blame and collect compromising materials. When I said that there was no compromising evidence against me, they answered that for them there was no problem to invent them. Create a three-minute audio recording is not a problem. Last week, I stated that they were preparing a record from my different phone conversations, and they did so today, but no one in Ukraine believed these mounted, forgery records, because these bodies are not trusted, everyone knows what they are capable of. Many deputies came to support me, and a criminal case was launched against all these deputies. We will fight to the end, they thought that we would easily surrender. They did not expect me to resist, they used force and eventually what happened.

– Did you expect such a turn of events? Despite the fact that people helped you cross the border, it was unexpected what happened today.

-On the border our activists from all over Ukraine were gathered, we knew the time of our arrival at the border, and here came ordinary people, neighbors, passers-by. Women and men fought so that they cannot be called heroes. First of all, this is the merit of the Ukrainian people. Of course, the threat still exists, they threaten some special operation tomorrow, but they will not do anything. These handcuffs I store for President Poroshenko, he will need them soon.

– It’s interesting to know, within two hours they could not get to your apartment or did not want to? It was clear that they did not try very hard.

– They could not, but those who entered were very friendly. Some admitted that among the representatives of the SSU there are also our activists. People with whom I was in the car, three of the seven were definitely on our side, the two could not decide, but they all did not say very well about Poroshenko. Therefore, I am sure that the time will come and they will gladly use handcuffs against him.

 

– I wonder who took off your handcuffs in the car?

– The SSU themselves took off and did not resist much before my release. Before that it was interesting, when I was on the roof, surrounded on all sides, from somewhere on the roof climbed our activist priest, I did not recognize him he was in civilian clothes and asked him not to touch me. He supported me, read a prayer and told everyone not to touch me, I do not know how he could climb up unnoticed to me, probably through a fire engine. It was so amazing.

I want to tell our supporters in Georgia, of course, Ukraine is an important country for me, but my heart belongs to each of you, and Ivanishvili is nobody. If we want to do something together, we must support each other, as the Ukrainians did today. We should not tolerate so much humiliation from Ivanishvili and his government. The people, only unity will save us.

– Today we heard the word “impeachment” constantly. Do your supporters demand a law on impeachment or impeachment of President Poroshenko?

-Why did they speed up the process of my detention? Because last week we held the most massive rally after 2014. There were about 60 thousand people, this was not there for a long time, and next week we expected 3 and 4 times more people, they got scared and came up with this stupidity. They did not expect such an effect.

– Yes, they said that they are going to arrest you within 24 hours, Lutsenko said that, if necessary, they will take you to court violently. What are you going to do? They threaten the dispersal of your supporters.

– They already did this in 2013 with students, and this resulted in a great revolution. Thus, people have learned these lessons well, and the police no longer want to use force against people. They will do everything with bribery, but this will not work. Our task is to fight to the end, to mobilize people both in Ukraine and in Georgia. I want to thank the Georgians once again, thank you for your support, thank you very much, I feel your support, you are very valuable to me, and I am sure that we will succeed.

 – As for the charges, you said that the record is mounted, do you exclude any relations of Severion Dangadze with any of the named persons that the prosecutor’s office used against you?

“We did not create any criminal group, I do not know Kurchenko at all, I’ve never crossed with him, it’s an ordinary provocation.”

– Lutsenko, who was a political prisoner, why did he make such a decision?

– Money and power spoil some. They decided that everything is possible, and can afford anything.

– Today Yulia Tymoshenko became one of the leaders of this process, is it possible to expect the unification of your parties?

– Julia knows that if the totalitarian regime is established in Ukraine, she has no prospects. That’s why she was on the border, and so she spoke today at the Rada. These processes show that the unification of the opposition is inevitable. I am grateful to all these people.

– When you were presented with such heavy accusations, it became clear to everyone that there could be no talk of extradition, and Ukraine wants to leave you in custody on its own territory. What can you say about this?

– For such stupid accusations, no court will take. They wanted to create some effect of my detention, and then get rid of me. As you can see, nothing came of them.