• Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president, has been in prison for 16 months and has lost 90 pounds.
• He has traces of arsenic, mercury, and other toxins in his hair and nail clippings, and has mild brain damage and seizures.
• He is on a strange medical regimen that includes 14 different drugs, some of which are not approved for sale in the US.
• Saakashvili was notable for pushing his country in the direction of Western liberal democracy and breaking the power of the post-Soviet mafia.
• Putin loathed him and his political program, and reportedly once said Saakashvili should be “hung by his balls.”
• Saakashvili was arrested on trumped-up charges, and his supporters believe this is the real reason for his slow torment.
• The ruling Georgian Dream party has said that Saakashvili is in prison because he would cause trouble for them if he were free.
• The party has also imprisoned Nika Gvaramia, the director of an independent television station, and put pressure on judges.
• The European Union has formally recognized Ukraine and Moldova as candidates for membership but spurned Georgia.
• The quantity of what appears to be sanctions-busting cargo flowing through Georgia to Russia has surged in the first half of 2022.
• Saakashvili’s lawyer and family are asking the government to release him on humanitarian grounds and let him transfer to a hospital in Europe or the US.
Published February 3, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Anne Applebaum’s original post The Slow-Motion Murder of Mikheil Saakashvili
