Jailed former Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has issued a new lengthy letter looking back at his 2021-2024 tenure, crediting his government with rescuing the country from a political and economic crisis, reopening the economy, “refusing COVID dictatorship,” and securing EU candidate status “without bowing head to anyone.”
In the September 29 letter, published on Garibashvili’s social media, he also highlighted social reforms and government programs, claimed his administration had “politically nullified the entire radical opposition,” took credit for ensuring “uncompromising and firm protection of our country’s national interests despite pressure” amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, and claimed having averted destabilization and what he described as a “revolutionary” plot led by also jailed ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Recalling that almost three years have passed since he left office in January 2024, Garibashvili asked the public: “Has the situation in the country improved or worsened in the direction of domestic or foreign policy?”
The statement comes as part of a series of allegations Garibashvili has made in recent weeks about a group within the Georgian Dream government pressuring him to confess to a corruption-related crime as a guarantee of keeping him out of politics. Following his initial allegations, Garibashvili, who is currently serving a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to a serious money laundering offence, was also charged with bribery, a corruption-related offence.
While in his first statement, Garibashvili mentioned a “letter” – allegedly containing pressure – sent to him “on the instruction” of Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, his later statements indicated Mamuka Mdinaradze as sending the letter. Mdinaradze, who had held a number of high-level positions in the GD government over the past year, announced his resignation and departure from politics on August 27, some nine days after Garibashvili first mentioned his name.
One of Ivanishvili’s closest aides before entering politics, Garibashvili served as Georgian prime minister twice, from 2013 to 2015 and again from 2021 to 2024.
Statement in Detail
Garibashvili began his letter by recalling the situation he inherited when he returned as prime minister in February 2021, following then-PM Giorgi Gakharia’s resignation.
“The country was in an acute political crisis, with the COVID pandemic (a vaccine shortage), a locked-down country, a closed economy, a minus six-percent economic decline, and a nine-percent budget deficit,” Garibashvili wrote, adding that “government debt relative to GDP exceeded 60%, and the lari exchange rate had risen to the 3.3-3.4 mark. Everything had come to a standstill, and the country was effectively facing the threat of ‘default.’”
He went on to criticize Gakharia, saying that he “abandoned a country and a team in such a crisis when he committed a sudden betrayal and resigned.”
“The government was on the verge of collapse, the ruling party was demoralized, the team was confused, and the party’s rating at that time had fallen to 35–37%. I took over such a collapsed government on February 18, 2021,” he said.
Immediately after his appointment, Garibashvili said the government “restored balance in the shortest possible time, strengthened the team, and stabilized the situation,” emphasizing that his team “took bold, effective, and, at that time, risky steps: we opened the country, brought in three types of vaccines, refused COVID dictatorship, and I declared full freedom to our people regarding vaccination.”
In parallel, he said, “we opened the closed economy and gave a strong push to business and economic development.”
Garibashvili recalled that the government back then, “began implementing new initiatives across the whole country: large infrastructure projects, a regional renewal program, and we launched work in every municipality.”
“In the same year, we confidently won the local elections. We overcame the 43% threshold and got 47%,” he said, apparently referring to the threshold set under the EU-brokered April 19 agreement, which included Georgian Dream’s commitment to hold early parliamentary elections if it received less than 43% of the proportional vote in the 2021 local elections.
“We avoided destabilization and an attempt to organize a revolution with Saakashvili’s participation, put every destructive force in its place, and ended the political crisis. And finally, we closed both 2021 and 2022 with unprecedented double-digit economic growth,” he continued.
Garibashvili claimed that the country’s economy “grew fastest during my three-year rule,” arguing that in three years, “the economy grew by thirty billion lari,” and the team managed to control inflation, as it came down “below the target level, and in certain periods, was even below 1%.”
“As a result, the pressure on prices was lifted,” he said. “For example, with the opening of the Turkish market and the introduction of reference prices on medicines, drug prices dropped instantly, falling by 30–40% on average, and as a result, in two years we saved our country’s population 400 million lari,” Garibashvili added, noting that before that, “medicines were sold with markups of 100–300%, and no effective control existed.”
Garibashvili said the government brought the budget deficit down from “9% to 2.8%” and “stabilized the lari exchange rate within the range of 2.6–2.7.”
“In three years, we sharply reduced government debt from 60% to 38%,” he added.
He further credited his government with reducing unemployment and poverty to “a historic minimum,” creating tens of thousands of jobs and increasing the salaries of police officers, soldiers and special-service employees by 40-50%, alongside increases in pensions and the salaries of teachers and doctors.
Garibashvili further claimed that “Georgia was in first place in terms of economic growth rate among EU member and candidate countries,” while ranking third in terms of low inflation and tenth in terms of government debt.
Turning to Russia’s war against Ukraine, Garibashvili said that from the very first days of the war, “despite the most difficult pressure, we firmly and uncompromisingly defended our country’s national interests, avoided destabilization and the real danger of war.”
“In parallel with the rapid development taking place inside the country, we were conducting an active foreign policy.”
According to Garibashvili, “in three years, we carried out 25 foreign visits. We submitted the application for membership in the European Union. We signed new strategic agreements and free trade agreements.”
He recalled his “successful visits” to “China, Brussels, European capitals, America, the countries of the Middle East and the Gulf, Israel and Jordan (with the blessing of His Holiness Ilia II, after three hundred years Georgia returned to the Holy Land).”
“We strengthened friendly and strategic relations in the region,” Garibashvili continued. “Recently, the first mediation between Azerbaijan and Armenia was carried out precisely with my participation. Also, for the first time, a meeting of the prime ministers of all three countries was held in Tbilisi.”
Garibashvili returned to Georgia’s EU candidate status issue, saying it was achieved through the “uncompromising protection of our country’s national interests.”
“Without bowing my head to anyone, either inside or outside the country, only through the uncompromising defense of our country’s national interests and the joint efforts of our team, in December 2023 we received EU candidate status,” he said.
“With the achieved results and, most importantly, by democratic methods, we politically nullified the entire radical opposition; we left no one with anything to say or talk about,” Garibashvili claimed, adding that the approval rating of his government’s work in January 2023 stood at 60%, “as was the party’s rating.”
“With these results, I left the post of prime minister at the end of January 2024,” he said.
“Almost three years have passed since then, and I want to ask the people: has the situation in the country improved or worsened — in the direction of domestic or foreign policy?!” Garibashvili concluded.
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