I was in a hurry to build the port in Anaklia, because in 2014-2015 the export of American military cargo from Afghanistan was planned and Lazika ideally matched the Americans’ requirements - Ivanishvili immediately shut down Lazika and the American cargo went by the Russian route, which brought Russia large revenues, - writes the third President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, on social media.

According to him, the opening of the port was planned for 2013 and together with it the development of Lazika was planned, where in 25 years the population would reach half a million.

“We were not building only a deep-water port in Anaklia. What is more important, we were building a new large city, Lazika, which would include the territory of Anaklia and Kulevi and would reach Poti.

The opening of the port was planned for the end of 2013. According to my calculations, in 25 years half a million residents would live there, whose source of income would be the port, logistics, tourism, technologies.

Today, if it had not been stopped, there would be more residents in Lazika than in Batumi. These people would mainly relocate from the remaining districts of Samegrelo and we would also bring back emigrants there with high-paying jobs. It is my deep conviction that Mingrelians must have one large city.

Lazika would not only be the main logistics hub of Georgia and the Caucasus, but would also be our connection with the several million Laz living in Turkey. It would strengthen their identity linked to Georgia and would also be our economic bridgehead towards Abkhazia, which would economically and culturally attract Abkhazia. I am not even talking about the fact that the Gali district would simply be a continuation of Lazika.

I was in a hurry to build the port, because in 2014-2015 the export of American military cargo from Afghanistan was planned and Lazika ideally matched the Americans’ requirements, which would bring us enormous revenues and create a very large port for us. Exactly in this way the port of Singapore grew in its time. Ivanishvili immediately shut down Lazika and the American cargo went by the Russian route, which brought Russia large revenues in those years.

Despite the fact that the circumstances have changed, Georgia’s real rapid development and progress is linked, just as before, to the city of Lazika and the construction of the Lazika port. Ivanishvili cannot kill this idea and it will be fully implemented after the dictatorship is overthrown,” - writes Mikheil Saakashvili.