I am currently in Georgia.

Yesterday I checked into a hotel, and in the evening we sat with the owner and chatted. He told me:

• that the cursed Saakashvili started a war with Russia, caused a rift between two good countries, and they still haven’t been able to reconcile.
• that under the cursed Saakashvili, the police killed and raped, and now, finally, they have stopped.
• that in 2012, Saakashvili prepared to usurp power after losing the elections, but half of the special forces refused to fight the people, and the dictator had to leave.
• that during the war with Russia, many officers abandoned their weapons because they did not want to fight for the regime, but wanted Georgia to become Russian; later they were imprisoned for 10 years, but were released under the new government.
• that under the cursed Saakashvili, LGBT people became completely unrestrained and felt at home in an Orthodox country.
• that this clown has no and never had popular support.

And then I watched a recent interview of Saakashvili with Alexey Romanov, and there Saakashvili says that Ivanishvili’s regime is illegitimate, he no longer has popular support, and decisive clashes between the regime and the people are about to begin.

What conclusion would I like to draw from all this? Value sociological data! As long as you are surrounded by your comrades, you are in an echo chamber. You have no idea how popular your views are in society, and when you decide to hold a rally or participate in elections, unpleasant surprises may await you. On the other hand, if conducting sociological research is for some reason impossible for you, then mass actions themselves become sociology for you. If you managed to bring tens of thousands of supporters to a rally — perhaps hundreds of thousands will vote for you. If you didn’t — then do not be deceived, work on recognition and fight the anti-rating (for example, by changing your leader).

As for the interview, watch it; it is actually mostly not about Georgia, but about Russia.