After the New Year, a new wave of repression, arrests, and intimidation has begun, with the sole aim of stopping the protest, which will not stop – this strike should be a symbol that society will not be intimidated, that society is determined, knows what it wants, and knows what it does not want," said the fifth President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, in a video address to the public.

According to her, the country has entered a new stage of the Russian regime, which uses all the methods characteristic of Putin's regime.

"I address, first and foremost, our society, which is probably very agitated today due to what is happening in the country. The fact is that after the New Year, a new wave of repression, arrests, and intimidation has started, with the sole purpose of stopping the protest, which will not stop. We have entered a new stage of the Russian regime, which clearly uses all the methods that characterized and continue to characterize the Russian, Putin regime. One example of this is what happened in Abu Dhabi with a citizen at the hands of deputies, who, if nothing else, should have a duty to show patience, but here we see no patience anywhere. On the contrary, it seems that the deputies (whether they were instructed or doing this on their own initiative) are being used in violence, which is completely incomprehensible for a normal country and is typical only for authoritarian, dictatorial, totalitarian regimes. Similarly, what happened last night with one of the politicians, Giorgi Gakharia, is also completely unimaginable. I don't want to single out politicians and others – this concerns every citizen – violence against anyone and attempts to intimidate citizens are unacceptable. International solidarity will be expressed on this matter, because we cannot allow this. It so happened that today, a large portion of society is on strike. This strike should be a symbol that society will not be intimidated, that society is determined – it knows what it wants, and it knows what it does not want. Georgia will not agree to become a country that transforms into a Russian regime completely. This is what Georgia is fighting for, and it fights peacefully," said Zurabishvili.