Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been imprisoned in the capital Tbilisi for over a year.

He is in poor health and has lost a lot of weight during his incarceration. abuse of power and bodily harm against an opposition politician.

– I remember in detail the day I was poisoned by Russian agents. They infiltrated Georgian security services, Saakashvili claims at Politics Europe.

He says it was decisive in his weight loss – from 120 to 60 kilos.

– Since then, I have been in poor health. Here I am sitting inside, it is the security people, not the doctors, who decide what treatment I receive, says the former president.

Half-Ukrainian Saakashvili also served as governor of the Ukrainian city of Odessa.

He is, like most Georgians, a strong supporter of closer ties with the West. 85% of the population say they support EU membership.

At Politico, he insists that the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili – who made his fortune in Russia – was ordered by Moscow to take control of the Georgian state.

Earlier in March, people took to the streets in violent protests to demonstrate against Ivanshvili’s ruling Georgian Dream party. Many believe he is still the most powerful man in Georgia:

– He controls everything. The legislature, the government, the judiciary, Saakashvili says from prison.

At the same time, he discusses the protests that forced Georgian Dream to withdraw a highly controversial, apparently Russian-inspired bill:

– Ivanishvili decided that Putin’s opinion is the most important and the Georgian people are worthless. Well, he made the typical mistake of all autocrats: he cannot tame a free people, says Saakashvili.