“How can opposition parties that are business projects of business groups possibly win? Lelo is Badri and Mamuka’s business project. Akhali, no matter how much we may try to ignore it, was formed from the very beginning as a project of the Gilauri brothers,” former President Mikheil Saakashvili said during a court hearing while discussing the opposition.

According to Saakashvili, there are also “several smaller business projects distributed across different categories.”

“How can an opposition win when the vast majority of it is trying to establish itself at my expense, and some do not even hesitate to cooperate with the dictator’s accomplices? And how can opposition parties win when they are business projects of business groups?

With all due respect, ‘Lelo’ is a business project of Badri and Mamuka. ‘Akhali,’ no matter how much we try to ignore it, was created from the outset as a project of the Gilauri brothers - not to win, but to take voters away from my party, the United National Movement. The goal was achieved. After the Gilauris fulfilled their patrons’ assignment, they also stopped funding it, and now I see that Akhali is stuck. Besides these, there are several smaller business projects spread across different categories,” Saakashvili said.

According to him, the opposition still does not meet the criteria for victory.

“Does today’s opposition meet the criteria for victory? So far, no. How do you defeat a dictatorship when parties boast that the dictatorship awarded them a higher percentage than their ‘competing opposition’ in a rigged election?” Saakashvili said.

He also said he wanted to respond to his old friend Nika Gvaramia regarding October 4, adding that he does not share Gvaramia’s position.

“I must respond to my old friend Gvaramia - I cannot agree with this. October 4 was not a day when people lost their judgment. It was the struggle of 200,000 passionate people together with the organizers of the rally,” Saakashvili said.

According to Saakashvili, a dictatorship is weighing down Georgia, and removing it requires “nothing more than internal pressure.”

“Russia is burning - look at how the roof of an oil refinery in Moscow was blown off. In exactly the same way, this regime sits on Georgia like a lid. Just as Ivanishvili’s palace towers over Tbilisi, this dictatorship towers over Georgia, and removing it requires only internal pressure.

If you look closely, that roof of the Moscow oil refinery could not withstand the pressure and came off. Is the pressure within society strong enough? This is not general pressure - it is pressure caused by injustice, by the degradation of Georgia’s dignity, by corruption, and by poverty.

We are not generating enough of this pressure, and I want to ask the audience: are you satisfied with this boiling point, with this situation? Probably not,” Saakashvili said.