Imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has stated that gasoline supplied from Georgia to Abkhazia is actually largely being diverted further—to Russia's southern regions. According to him, the fuel shortage in southern Russia was a key factor driving up gasoline prices within Georgia itself.
Saakashvili’s statement came amidst a fuel crisis in Abkhazia. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze had previously confirmed that fuel from the Tbilisi-controlled part of the country had indeed reached Abkhazia. He stated that the delivery was organized by private business interests rather than the Georgian authorities. However, the government did not disclose the volume of the shipment or the name of the company involved. Saakashvili disputed this version of events.
"It is a lie that the gasoline entering Georgia is going to Abkhazia!" he wrote on social media.
The former president claims that "only a negligible fraction" of the fuel remains in Abkhazia, while the bulk of it is sent to Russia's southern regions. Saakashvili attributed this to the gasoline shortage in southern Russia, which he says was caused by Ukrainian strikes. Against this backdrop, the politician argues, fuel prices in Russia rose, and the Georgian market also saw price increases.
"That is precisely why gasoline in Georgia has reached 4 lari," Saakashvili asserted.
He offered no evidence to support his claims but took the opportunity to once again harshly criticize the "Georgian Dream" government, accusing it of turning Georgia into an "economic vassal of Russia."
Separately, the former president mocked the contradictions in the Georgian authorities' rhetoric. He noted that the government simultaneously accuses the previous administration of getting too close to Russia and of provoking it. Saakashvili termed this logic "Orwellian-Ivanishvilian cognitive dissonance," drawing on imagery from the works of George Orwell.
"This shameless government—which claims to be 'fighting Russophobia'—accuses us of selling everything out to Russia, yet it has become hopelessly tangled in its own talking points: did we sell everything to Russia and pander to tourists, or did we provoke Russia? How could both be happening at the same time?
Cursed be the day Ivanishvili’s wife told him about Orwell—whose ideas lodged so firmly in the dictator’s mind that war and peace, friend and enemy, became one and the same—leading to the claim that Misha both 'lay down' for the Russians and simultaneously provoked them. And the 'Kotsi' [supporters of the ruling 'Georgian Dream' party], like loyal denizens of *Animal Farm*, hysterically parrot this Orwellian-Ivanishvilian cognitive dissonance," Saakashvili said, using a metaphor to characterize the authorities' actions.
