Saakashvili came to Georgia hoping to stage coup – PM Garibashvili

TBILISI. Oct 6 (Interfax) – Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has explained the secret arrival of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in Georgia with a coup plot.

"The most logical theory is that Saakashvili came to Georgia not to be put in prison but with a great hope to carry out a coup," Garibashvili said in a letter published on social media on Wednesday.

Apparently, the reasons for Saakashvili’s visit can be found in the modern history of Georgia, when Saakashvili and his supporters toppled President Eduard Shevardnadze in 2003, Garibashvili said. "Saakashvili was planning to come to Georgia and topple the government as ‘successfully’ as he did in 2003, but he made a mistake and saw a completely different picture instead of decaying public institutions. All public institutions are working perfectly here nowadays," he said.

Many Georgian citizens "are wondering what made Saakashvili devise his reckless plan of coming to Georgia," Garibashvili said.

"Some think he was driven by the lust for power, egoism and envy of other leaders of the United National Movement party and he intentionally went to prison just to win public attention. […] Some say it was hard to anticipate the consequences of his decision because of severe drug addiction," Garibashvili said.

"The mental and psychological condition of Saakashvili drastically changed after the incarceration from what it was before. His party, the United National Movement, is concerned about his severe condition and demands his immediate release from custody," he said.

In the opinion of Garibashvili, the theory of Saakashvili’s intentional plan of incarceration is absurd. If Saakashvili had really wanted that to happen, "he would have openly gone to prison without sneaking into the country and breaking the law," he said. It’s also illogical to blame Saakashvili’s drug addiction for everything: "no matter how big the drug addiction is, a person is still able to realistically assess the situation and avoid illogical steps."

"The revolutionary aspirations of Saakashvili were doomed to fail anyway," Garibashvili said. "Even if he had fulfilled the plan and made a surprise appearance on Rustaveli Avenue on October 3, the police would have used a water cannon or other instruments to scatter the crowd and to easily detain Saakashvili," he said.

Over recent years, the television channels owned by Saakashvili and his party have been spreading intentional lies about the decaying state of Georgia and believed their lies themselves, Garibashvili said. "That explains the drastic change in the mental condition of Saakashvili before and after imprisonment: he entered the prison with a smile on his face, and now the only thing he cares about is how to get out," he said.