I think that our society will not allow anyone to establish a dictatorship again in the future. [Mikhail] Saakashvili will fail.

Our prison in Georgia is a very different place from this prison here in Berlin. The conditions there are inhuman.

I worked with Mikhail Saakashvili for more than six years. I was his right-hand man. He never accused me of anything during that time. But the minute I switched to the opposition, I was suddenly called a criminal. It was a political maneuver.

I made mistakes. My supporters and I failed to prevent a main like [Mikhail] Saakashvili from acquiring absolute power. I should have criticized him earlier on.

I hope to be granted asylum. Deportation [ from Germany] that would be a death sentence for me.

Mikhail Saakashvili would do everything within his power to destroy me, first as a politician and then as a person. All government authorities, including the police, the military and the courts, are controlled by those in power.

Georgian society can no longer be divided. I don't want to see our country's best minds leaving the country to try their luck abroad.