Putin will claim Georgia, warns jailed ex-leader

THE imprisoned former president of Georgia has warned it is “only a matter of time” before Vladimir Putin tries to claim his country.

- David Williamson

Mikheil Saakashvili wrote to MP Adam Holloway to say that although the world’s attention has been fixed on Ukraine, the dictator’s “territorial ambitions stretch as far as the capital Tbilisi in the Caucasus and the current Georgian government is all but facilitating his vision for a new Russian empire”.

There is international concern about the health of Mr Saakashvili, who led Georgia from 2004 to 2013.

He has previously claimed he is being poisoned by Kremlin agents.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who granted him citizenship in 2019, has urged Tbilisi to free him, warning that he is in danger of being “killed by Russia at the hands of Georgian authorities”.