We don't deserve this government, but we deserve to return to the Western family, and we shouldn't miss this opportunity - Nika Gvaramia's address to the international community

Nika Gvaramia's address from the 12th Penitentiary - an address to the public and the international community from the CEO of the Mtavari Channel - was delivered by his lawyer Dmitri Sadzaglishvili:

"Hello everyone. Thank you very much for your support and sympathy. I feel good and encouraged. I am watching with great attention and satisfaction that that finally everyone's eyes have been opened and dispelled even the slightest illusion that Georgians cannot unite around one goal. That it is all the fault of polarization in the society in which we are all apparently of equally part of and all of us are to blame.

Today I heard an impeccable analysis by German Professor Hans Gutbrod and a call to bury the word polarization in relation to Georgia. This call is primarily addressed to our foreign friends, who have been misled for so long by the absurdity of Ivanishvili's invented polarization. In fact, it is the controlled chaos created by Ivanishvili that is dragging the country in the direction of Russia. For years now, he has been making the world feel as if we are a helpless and weak nation that does not deserve to be part of the European family. Indeed, what we are witnessing in our country is not horizontal polarization, i.e., the confrontation between the opposition and the government, between the right and the left, and so on. This is a vertical polarization, where the culprit above the pole is the oligarchy with its deeply corrupt system and bureaucrats, with its hundreds of thousands of budgetary freeloaders who sell the motherland for a salary; With its extremist forces who rob, beat, kill, his captured state, and at the lower pole are the Georgian patriots, basically, everyone else, with the so-called Russian World at one pole, and the Georgians pro- westerners at the other pole. This is a confrontation between the abuser and the victim.

The question is, how can an agreement between you and the person who wants to ruin you, be reached; How can you unite around a European idea with a group of people who not only do not believe in this idea, not only are against this idea, but openly and aggressively sabotage this idea, as Yanukovych did in 2014?

"Georgian Dream" is, in fact, a Russian force, and Ivanishvili's modus apparandi is absolutely Russian. He does not understand negotiation and adherence to agreement, he does not understand compromise and concession. He perceives all this as a weakness, just like any other Russian. The sower of fear himself takes his decisions at the dictation of his only instinct, which is fear, and so he, like every other Russian, must speak to it from a position of strength. So we need courage and fearlessness. Our historical compass points only to the west, and straying from that path is forbidden! And any obstacle on this road, must be sent the same way as the Russian Ship!

I appeal to the international community: the current government of Georgia is a non-Georgian force controlled by Russia. We, the ancient Europeans, the Georgian force are the people of Georgia! We do not deserve this government, and we will definitely and quickly correct this mistake! But we deserve to return to our historic origins, to the Western family, and this window of opportunity should not close in front of us!

This is the wish of every Georgian patriot today and for centuries, and it is the only and certain path to a bright future for Georgia. "Nika Gvaramia's address reads.