The chairman of the For Georgia party, former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia says that the country's economy is growing, but the increased economy goes into the pockets of 20-25 families, and he knows all this by heart.
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“People get used to positions, stealing money, impunity. By now, they’ve run off to their homes with so much, that they are thinking about how to protect and preserve all this fortune, and they are also afraid of being caught. These people should not disappear, but they should be held accountable for their damages. The questions will start now – who’s taken how much, who’s stolen how much, who’s spoiled how much”, said Gakharia during the meeting with the voters.
According to the political secretary of the party, Kakha Kemoklidze, during Gakharia's prime ministership, these 20-25 families could not get rich, they started flourishing only after.
“These people couldn’t win tenders and arrange business deals in advance. I alone remember dozens of their projects, which were stopped and pushed aside from the government administration desk.
What was the first thing they did as soon as we left? What they did was that these projects were turned back and they made a green corridor by way of the domino principle.
If an objective anti-corruption agency existed and was investigating these cases, there would be not dozens, but hundreds of cases where extremely valuable properties are handed over for 1 GEL. Imagine you’re a person with close ties to the Georgian Dream or you are close to the Prime Minister, and the property of an ordinary Georgian citizen is sold to you for 1 GEL, then they register it for you using various manipulations, and then you sell this property. You are already selling for millions of GEL and dollars. You become a millionaire instantly.
Gakharia was doing the best he could as a prime minister. At that time, there were only 5 families who were close to Bidzina Ivanishvili and did this. These 5 families were closed off wherever it was possible, and therefore, they couldn’t spread through the body of the state like metastases. To completely defeat the virus, you have to be in charge of the entire system,” Kemoklidze said on the air of Palitra TV.
Gakharia's accusations were labeled as demagoguery in the Georgian Dream.
Giorgi Gakharia was the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia during 2017-2019. During his ministerial tenure, on June 20-21 of 2019, the police brutally dispersed a demonstration held on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi. The protest was brought about by the arrival of Russian Duma deputy Sergey Gavrilov in Tbilisi and subsequently the by the session of the International Assembly of Orthodoxy conducted from the chair of the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament. Gavrilov and other members of the Russian delegation had to leave Georgia due to large demonstrations and high tension. 240 people, including 30 journalists, were injured during the crackdown of the rally; two of the demonstrators lost an eye. 342 people were arrested for violating public order and disobeying the request of the police. After the dispersal of the protest rally, one of the main demands of the public was the resignation of Gakharia, however, he was promoted and appointed as the Prime Minister within three months. He resigned from the position of the head of the government on February 18, 2021. Gakharia cited his differing position over the arrest of the chairman of the National Movement party, Nika Melia, as the reason for his resignation. He said he did not agree with the ruling party over the issue.
