"We have been turned around very quickly by pulling up the handbrake and are now moving back to the Georgian SSR," the fourth President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili, told PalitraNews TV.

According to Margvelashvili, authoritarianism has been methodically built in Georgia for years.

"Georgia has established authoritarianism and an authoritarian state. Those alleging that this is not an authoritarian state simply do not have enough education about authoritarianism or want to pretend. Today, all branches of government are controlled from one center and this is not because the Georgian Dream is unusual or because the National Movement is so bad and people vote against them, no! This is because authoritarianism has been methodically built in this country, by using all resources. Authoritarianism has been methodically built by using financial and state resources.

Such is the logic of authoritarianism. We are slowly moving towards totalitarianism, towards a state in which we should all become the same - we should all love Bidzina Ivanishvili equally, we should all hate Mikheil Saakashvili equally, we should thank the Georgian Dream equally. This will be our future unless we resist.

When journalists are arrested, opposition channels are blocked and different speech is methodically suppressed, the opposition will never be able to control even a small unit in this system. There is no other explanation for this, except that we have been turned around very quickly by pulling up the handbrake and are now moving back to the Georgian SSR," said Giorgi Margvelashvili.