The Prime Minister of Georgia said “anarchist organisations who had been affiliated with the radical United National Movement had used and made the youth throw Molotov cocktails at police during March rallies”. Irakli Garibashvili said this after presenting the Government’s annual report to the Parliament.

“The organisations similar to the Franklin Club had used Lazare Grigoriadis... The organisations allegedly linked with the UNM and the family of Mikheil Saakashvili had later abandoned the youth they had used for sparking tensions during the protests. But we will never tolerate attacks on the law enforcement.

The relevant state agencies had been well-aware of the opposition’s destructive plans during the rallies and also possessed related evidence.

The clandestine return of Saakashvili to the country in 2021 after 8 years abroad aimed at staging a coup to overthrow the Government and later drag Georgia into the Russia-Ukraine war.

If not our Government and our effective work, the country would have been turned into a battlefield like in 2008.

Following the conflict in 2008 Saakashvili’s Government signed a capitulant document and shifted the blame of launching the war onto the country’s heroic servicemembers. Former authorities had also sold critical infrastructure to Russians after the war”, - said Irakli Garibashvili.