Nodar Kharshiladze: The monster is beginning to devour itself — according to my information, they’ve calculated the \$600 million that was stolen, and they are demanding its return from Rizhvadze, Gharibashvili, Liluashvili, and Mikautadze

“Every day that ‘Georgian Dream’ remains in power is highly detrimental and damaging to Georgia,” said Nodar Kharshiladze, founder of the “Strategic Analysis Center,” during an appearance on PalitraNews’s program “Political Space.”

According to Kharshiladze, the authoritarianism prevailing in the country is already in its final stage of existence, which is evident in the fact that it has begun to destroy itself.

“There is undoubtedly authoritarianism in the country, but it doesn’t reach the level of dictatorship. Not because they don’t want it—they want it very much—but because they lack the resources for it. The rise and fall of this authoritarianism have their own stages. We are now at the stage where it’s approaching its end. The penultimate stage is when the monster starts devouring itself. This self-destruction is exactly what is reflected in the arrest of the deputy economy minister and then the case of Tornike Rizhvadze. This already indicates that the system has started fighting itself. Fighting against itself inevitably leads to its destabilization, followed by collapse. How long this will take is unknown.

The problem is that every day ‘Georgian Dream’ spends in power is highly detrimental and damaging to Georgia. We are not moving forward but backward. This was already a problem in 2015–2017, but back then, there wasn’t even a theoretical chance of EU membership; we were only part of the neighborhood policy.

Today, when we have been given a historic chance to become an EU member and for Georgia to fulfill its historic mission of returning to the European family, in these conditions, it is a great crime when we are deliberately closing this window—not the Georgian people, but the force that dominates Georgia. This chance may not come again for our generation, and it will be the greatest crime of our generation.

My greatest concern is that, amid the internal self-destruction and conflict within the government, we will lose this enormous strategic goal,” Kharshiladze noted.

He also spoke about the internal situation within “Georgian Dream,” stating that Tornike Rizhvadze, Romeo Mikautadze, Irakli Garibashvili, and Grigol Liluashvili are being asked to return stolen money, amounting to a total of $600 million.

“This operates on the principle of a Russian ‘bratva,’ where there’s a ‘pakhan’ [boss] and a ‘banda’ [gang] below—this is how they behave today. If someone is expelled, they are required to return the money.

From the information I have, the list amounts to $600 million. This list represents stolen money from stolen money. This means that for years, they (‘Georgian Dream’) have been stealing money from tenders, call centers, and so on. From that stolen money, some people were stealing even more for themselves, and gradually, from the stolen money, they amassed $600 million, as calculated. They are demanding this money back from Mr. Rizhvadze, Mr. Garibashvili, the former head of the State Security Service, Mr. Mikautadze, and many others,” Kharshiladze stated.