All my life, I have worked to promote democracy and Western values. I have stood up against Russian aggression. I ask the U.S. and its allies to support the people of Georgia against tyranny, to preserve our progress toward Westernization, and to save my life.
In 2003 I joined brave Georgians during the Rose Revolution to ensure our country’s peaceful transition to democracy. Like Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky,
I challenged
when he invaded Georgia in 2008.
During my nine years as president, Georgia moved from being a mafia-dominated territory to a democracy with a dynamic economy. Today I am in the custody of a pro-Russian Georgian government under false and politically motivated charges of improperly pardoning security officials during my presidency and indirectly ordering a fatal attack on a political rival.
Since October 2021, I have been detained in Georgia under abusive and inhuman conditions. I am now in Tbilisi’s Vivamed Prison Clinic under constant surveillance. I have limited contact with my family and was able to pass this article discreetly to my mother. I am being punished for my commitment to democracy and Western values and for my ties with Georgia’s Western allies, including the U.S. If Georgia’s enemies succeed and I die in custody, other leaders in the region should worry about their fates and that of the area.
Under my administration, Georgia was a showcase of Western influence in the post-Soviet region. To make an example of us, Mr. Putin punished Georgia with a surprise invasion in August 2008 in the middle of the night through the Roki tunnel in the Caucasus Mountains. His goal was to depose our democratically elected government.
I was told to leave the country with my family within 24 hours or face imminent death. I stayed and fought back alongside fellow Georgians. The U.S. supported us, and Eastern European leaders flew to Tbilisi to demonstrate solidarity. We stopped Russia on the threshold of our capital.
In 2012 I presided over the first peaceful electoral transfer of power in the Caucasus region. Mr. Putin didn’t hide his meddling in Georgia’s 2012 parliamentary elections, which brought to power the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia.
During the…
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