Saakashvili Calls Lelo and Ahali Business Projects, Says Opposition Falls Short
By Messenger Staff
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Georgia's Third President Mikheil Saakashvili used a court hearing to weigh in on the Georgian opposition, calling several parties vehicles for business interests rather than genuine political forces.
"With all due respect, Lelo is a business project of Badri and Mamuka. Ahali, 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," Saakashvili said, adding that there were also "several smaller business projects spread across different categories."
He claimed the Gilauri brothers stopped funding Ahali after fulfilling what he called their "patrons' assignment." "The goal was achieved. After the Gilauris fulfilled their patrons' assignment, they also stopped funding it, and now I see that Ahali is stuck," he said.
Saakashvili also questioned whether the opposition was capable of defeating Georgian Dream. "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?" he said.
He also took issue with what he described as efforts within the opposition to build political profiles at his expense or cooperate with "the dictator's accomplices."
Saakashvili disagreed with his "old friend" Nika Gvaramia's characterization of the October 4 unrest. "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," he said.
On the question of removing Georgian Dream from power, Saakashvili argued that internal pressure alone was sufficient, drawing a comparison to a recent fire at a Moscow oil refinery. "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," he said.
He argued that society had not yet built up enough of that pressure. "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," he said, addressing the audience directly: "Are you satisfied with this boiling point, with this situation? Probably not."
