Mikheil Saakashvili: Regarding the wiretapping of the Georgian Church, there is one person in charge, one instructor and one executor - Ivanishvili

Bidzina Ivanishvili has always been very annoyed with the Georgian Church, he has always been a personal enemy of the Patriarch, I have witnessed this many times, - this is how former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili responds to alleged wiretapping of politicians, clerics and journalists.

As Mikheil Saakashvili says in a video posted on Facebook, such facts never happened when he was the President and if he had detected such a case, he would have severely punished the perpetrator.

"Regarding the wiretapping of the Georgian Church, there is one person in charge, one instructor and one executor - Ivanishvili. Ivanishvili's task is to destroy all state institutions, he practically destroyed the parliament in Kutaisi and the local self-government there, he tried to destroy the Georgian media, but so far he has not succeeded. He was always very annoyed with the Georgian Church, he has always been the personal enemy of the Patriarch, I have witnessed this many times. I know exactly what I'm talking about. There has been a lot of provocation, filth, rumors, criminal cases, collection of information about personal life and a thousand kinds of horrific things.

I want to address the people who say that Ivanishvili is doing what the previous government was doing. Can you recall even one case when any material of someone else’s personal life was spread? If some private individuals were doing something like that, I really don’t know. If I had detected such a thing, I would have really punished them. Has anyone heard that such a thing was happening massively? It was a rumor and now it is a reality. Ivanishvili wants to turn the whole country into a swamp and disaster, to discredit everyone and everything in the country, to make people run away from the country.

The only way is to stand together, to put aside all differences, all personal problems, strife and controversy. We must together change the situation and save Georgia, Georgian traditional values, save our church, save the future of our children," Saakashvili said.