Placing too much hope on the elections would be a mistake, writes Mikheil Saakashvili on his Facebook page.

“In these challenging days, the following points should be taken into account: it would be a mistake to place too much hope on the elections, especially after Ivanishvili announced their falsification on April 29.

If Ivanishvili runs the elections, it means that Russia will consume Georgia. The interim (transitional, technical) government should run the elections. The US have elections in the fall, and no one will have time for Georgia. In case of Trump’s victory, Ivanishvili hopes for the removal of sanctions if the Department of State designated him before that.

Russia is weaker at short range. The unexpected, spontaneously created situation, such as we have now, confuses and frightens it. Over the long run, Russia amasses power by using various methods, juggling information, and bribing people, and the chance of its victory builds up. For us, this is entering a losing game. We should not give this chance to Russia.

At the time, Yanukovych appealed to the West to allow him to postpone the elections for six months. The West agreed, and the Ukrainian government also agreed. The only one who did not was the rebellious Maidan, and as a result, Yanukovych fled.

If this had not happened, Ukraine would have been swallowed up by [Vladimer] Putin a long time ago, in those six months.

All these processes must go smoothly. People have great power”, - writes the former president.