"Kobakhidze has shut down the International Education Center, which I established, and which, in its time, funded thousands of Georgian students to study at the world’s best universities. This is a new stage of deep Talibanization, and it will have extremely destructive long-term consequences for our new generations," wrote Georgia’s third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, on social media.

According to him, "tyranny must be defeated in time."

"Kobakhidze has shut down the International Education Center, which I established, and which, in its time, funded thousands of Georgian students to study at the world’s best universities.

Now, this so-called prime minister has claimed that students who went abroad did not serve the state.

During my time, 99% of the students sent abroad returned to serve the country.

In reality, this is a new stage of deep Talibanization, and it will have extremely destructive long-term consequences for our new generations. We must defeat tyranny in time," Saakashvili wrote.