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Former economics minister and leading Georgian economist Lado Papava has described Zurab Noghaideli, the former prime minister and leader of the Movement for a Fair Georgia who recently went to Moscow to sign an alliance with Vladimir Putin's allies, as a "project of the Nationals [ruling party]" and involved in a "game" that suits Mikheil Saakashvili.

Speaking to the "Akhali Taoba" newspaper Papava, who as economics minister in the late 1990s introduced major currency reforms and opened the country to world trade, said that Putin had agreed to meet Noghaideli because it suited the Russians to help Saakashvili: "This unpopular figure meets Putin. According to the scenario of Saakashvili, he will softly criticize Noghaideli: he wishes 'tired' person to contact with Russia not person with great support within the society ... The government could not find better person than Noghaideli to contract with Russia. Noghaideli should neither be caught nor something else, but should keep ties with Russia. Saakashvili prolongs his powers via Noghaideli. Imagine Putin who shakes the whole world, meets with the ex-premier of small Georgia. Do you know why? Because Putin knows by petting Noghaideli, Misha will profit from it."

Papava said that the Georgian authorities could arrest Noghaideli at any time and were using him in a game to discredit the opposition: "These are the games of the government where the candidate is not real oppositionist but plays bluff. Here should be noted one thing: if Noghaideli breaches the rules of the game stipulated by the Nationals and starts to be the real oppositionist then the government contradict him with confirmatory evidences. Anyway I am confident Noghaideli will never be the popular figure in Georgian society. Who was Noghaideli in due course of November 7 events? He was premier indeed. Noghaideli as the real oppositionist is absolutely excluded."