“After being transferred here, to the prison next to the Rustavi cement plant, I developed rashes on my body and swelling of my limbs within a few days. I have almost completely lost my hair and have also developed breathing problems. I requested tests for toxic substances, but prison doctors told me that the decision on this matter is made not by them, but by ‘law enforcement’ authorities, and they refused,” Georgia’s third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, wrote on social media.

Saakashvili also notes that heating has been cut off at Rustavi Prison for nearly a week.

“Putin usually imprisons detained leaders of the Russian opposition in particularly cold northern regions and Siberia, where some of the most prominent are even poisoned.

Ivanishvili has decided to create Siberia here for us as well, along with the cold. For almost a week now, heating has been turned off at Rustavi Prison (guards have electric heaters in their own rooms), but this post is not about that.

After being transferred to this prison next to the Rustavi cement plant, I developed rashes on my body and swelling of my limbs within a few days. I have almost completely lost my hair and developed breathing problems.

I demanded toxic substance testing, but prison doctors explained that the decision is made not by them but by ‘law enforcement’ bodies, and I was refused - though this post is not about that either.

This post concerns most residents of Rustavi and Kaspi, who for many years have been exposed to this toxic dust falling on them and who mostly remain silent about the sharp increase in childhood cancer, the wide range of health damage among the rest of the population, and the fact that average life expectancy in both Rustavi and Kaspi is 7–8 years lower than in Kakheti and western Georgia.

I know that activists are fighting, but I want to ask the rest of Georgian society - are you silent because the owner of these factories is Ivanishvili? The very person who does not install the purification filters necessary to save your lives, who operates the factory at night so that you do not see the toxic dark smoke during the day.

He is the same person who is now taking away the Krtsanisi eco-zone from the people of Rustavi for an Arab city - an area that traditionally served as Rustavi’s lungs.

All of this is the responsibility of every ‘Georgian Dream’ supporter, and I want to ask them: do you enjoy tasting dishes made from the roasted, shriveled lungs of Rustavi and Kaspi residents at your New Year’s table?

And make sure that strands of hair fallen from children with cancer in Rustavi and Kaspi do not end up in your carrot juice or New Year’s champagne and slip down your throat,” Saakashvili wrote.