We lived in a totalitarian system for more than 70 years, and our views are still under its influence. Many heads of state in the former Soviet republics believe that they must have total power.

We lived in a totalitarian system for more than 70 years, and our views are still under its influence. Many heads of state in the former Soviet republics believe that they must have total power.

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

As long as [Mikhail] Saakashvili is president, I will be unable to prove my innocence in Georgia. Seen in this light, there is a positive aspect to my arrest in Germany. It will be much easier for me to refute the charges here.

[Mikhail] Saakashvili will use all legal and illegal means possible to remain in power. People are being threatened to prevent them from collaborating with the opposition. At the same time, he is terrorizing the business world, which prevents the opposition from gaining any funding.

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