“As a Georgian, my heart aches for the young people who were misled and are being kept locked away. We have not locked those people in prison; they have locked them away. Not one of them dares to realize what a mistake they were led into - they are so isolated,” Mikheil Kavelashvili told journalists.

According to Kavelashvili, it is “an order from the Euro-bureaucracy to send messages suggesting that there is democratic backsliding in Georgia and that human rights are being violated.”

“This double standard, this unfair behavior on their part, these insulting attitudes do not concern only the authorities - all of Georgia has seen clearly how these people operate. Now we have learned that Ukraine’s accession to NATO was never actually planned, even though this was presented as the main reason why this war happened.

Imagine if we had not fought this attitude the way we did and if our society had not been informed - we would have ended up with results no less severe than what we see in Ukraine. That is the difference: we prepared society because we are right, and it was necessary for the majority of our citizens to possess the information that I have. That is why their assessments are insignificant. Yet we even manage not to label the decisions they make as Europe’s decisions - we distinguish Europe from this Euro-bureaucracy, which no longer has support in its own countries.

We know more, we feel all of this, and we hope that European countries will regain their dignity - that Europe should not fall into the state it is in today, with the crisis it is facing.

There is an order to spread the messages that the Euro-bureaucracy issues against Georgia - claims of democratic backsliding, alleged violations of someone’s rights, persecution of political parties. When they tell these fairy tales, they feed this supposedly radical wing that is already fading. They can do nothing anymore; they are in a pitiful condition. Once again, I will say this: as a Georgian, my heart aches for the young people who were misled and are being kept locked away. We have not locked these people in prison - they have. They are so isolated that not one of them dares to realize the mistake they were led into. If even one of them dared to realize it - just look at what the Euro-bureaucracy is saying - if those young people were to comprehend all this. This is necessary because everything I spoke about was perceived by them as the complete opposite. How is that possible? When you are 20 or 25 years old and you remain stuck in the same mindset that supposedly made you a patriot, that made you want to create certain values - everything has been crossed out, nothing remains. Who are you opposing then? Are you angry because you showed violence and aggression toward the police, received a response for it, and now believe that this should motivate you to destroy the country and overthrow the government?” Kavelashvili said.