Tbilisi’s mayor believes pardoning Saakashvili will cost president dearly

Kakha Kaladze, Secretary General of the ruling "Georgian Dream" party and mayor of Tbilisi, has said that the pardon of Mikheil Saakashvili will cost President Salome Zourabichvili a lot.

"If the president, after all, makes such a decision, I'm sure it will be very difficult for her career and for her personally. It will be a tough decision", Novosti-Georgia quotes Kaladze as saying.

He called the statements and actions demanding attention to Saakashvili's condition and sending him abroad for treatment a staged and paid-for spectacle.

"There is no critical situation. These are purposefully staged performances, the main creator and participant of which is Mikheil Saakashvili himself.

These are purposeful, staged performances, which have their own actors, they are played from different countries, various contracts and agreements are made on how to run a PR campaign", Kaladze said.

He called the international action in support of Saakashvili a "part of the show", which was announced outside Georgian embassies on January 4 by Russian pro-opposition politician and human rights activist Mark Feygin.