Press Digest 18 08 2014
The relationship between our top officials has become extremely complicated and vague – Kakhi Kakhshvili
NATO will draft a package on broadening relations with Georgia -- German Ambassador to Georgia, Ortwin Hennig
Now Tatia Maisuradze can grasp the opportunity to tell everything she knows regarding the case – Sandro Girgvliani’s father
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The relationship between our top officials has become extremely complicated and vague – Kakhi Kakhshvili
"If the West viewed Georgia as a developed and democratic country, our President’s move to squander money and abuse power would agitate the entire world; however, in our day-to-day world, Georgia is deemed as a developing state where such instances can easily occur and where a high Executive is entitled to misuse his authority. Our western partners were very well aware of Saakashvili’s deeds while he was in office. This man simply enjoyed their favor – a ruler like Saakashvili definitely played into their hands,” declares expert Kakhi Kakhishvili in his interview with the Kviris Palitra gazette.
“Are you so naïve to think that the foreign Press Services fell short of information? Do you really think they knew nothing regarding our President’s ardent enthusiasm to underfund our country’s budget for private purposes? There is not even a shadow of doubt that they knew everything perfectly well. Take into account that he mainly used to squander money in the European countries and the USA. In addition, under the former rule, it was not difficult to notice how actively the National Movement exploited the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court to level their political adversaries to the ground – they had their sights trained on their political rivals and stopped at nothing to pulverize them. Even nowadays they can see that our Court and law enforcement agencies are not stable; that is the reason why they impugn the acting authorities’ motives and suspect that, like their predecessors, they are using these agencies as tools to destroy their political opponents. The western leaders must not be in the mood to allow them to throw their former political partner, who even today is eager to comply with their interests, in jail. Thus, in the present state of play, I view their intention to extradite Saakashvili back to Georgia as an unrealizable dream,” maintains Mr. Kakhishvili.
“On top of that, no one knows whether or not Interpol will declare our ex-President wanted. Generally, this organization handles similar issues with kid gloves. Obviously, the West and we are looking at this matter from two completely different angles. We and only we were forced to go through those terrible mishaps with which we were pelted during a long nine years; as for the western politicians and analysts, they always were VIP guests in our country, they always were met extremely warmly here. Saakashvili shook our businessmen down and spent his loot on these western guests and after this nothing can be surprising regarding the fact that they give different kind of evaluation to his nine-year regime,” states the respondent.
“The entire National Movement knew perfectly well that they poured all these astronomical financial resources into their boundless pockets – precisely thanks to this money, they reveled in luxury and enjoyed different types of entertainment. If it is really so then what made them classify the documents which included all these expenses as secret? They did this for one purpose only – to keep the Georgian people in the dark and hide Saakashvili’s expenses from them. An argument saying that Saakashvili hid this information from the Russian leader is undoubtedly toothless. If these expenses were legal, why should they have kept them under wraps?” asks the expert.
“After the Russian-Georgian war of 2008, Saakashvili, in fact, became unrestrained and uncontrollable; he stopped caring about the public opinion; he was well aware of the fact that he became a reviled leader but he decided to give the cold shoulder to his people and remain in power through repressive tools. He knew that the people were unable to have the final say in their future and bring down his corrupt government… Today the acting authorities simply have to take the situation into their own hands and reassure the western leaders that they are toeing the line while pressing various charges on the former high officials. If Saakashvili succeeded in making friends among the western leaders, if he hobnobbed with these people, what prevents the acting high officials from following his lead and being on good terms with the western political biggies?” asks Mr. Kkakhishvili.
“Unfortunately, the relationship between our top officials has become extremely complicated and vague – they must fathom that they are ruling the country which is why they must put their feelings aside and get down to doing a job. Discrediting state institutions is an unwarrantable mistake. This will bring us nothing good – if the institution of the President is being drag into mud today, the same will soon happen with other state institution and then with the entire country,” concludes the expert.
NATO will draft a package on broadening relations with Georgia -- German Ambassador to Georgia, Ortwin Hennig
"Georgia has taken a huge step towards Europe and has exerted really strenuous efforts to find its niche in the large European family the constituent of which it has always been historically and culturally. Having implemented the Association Agreement, Georgia will become a purely European country with European regulations, standards and norms; however, it will not be a member state of the EU,” declares German Ambassador to Georgia, Ortwin Hennig, in his interview with the Rezoananis gazette.
“The people must comprehend that the Association Agreement will not create miracles in the country on the spur of the moment – neither the country’s international status nor the standard of life will be improved immediately; jobs will also not be insanely created. On the contrary, the legislation is to be calibrated to entire sectors, reforms must be passed and all this may pose economic difficulties for your country; the people may also be face with different social problems. However, I call on people to view all this as an investment in the county’s future and not as a backbreaking burden. Georgia’s Government cannot let this opportunity slip away – the recipe for success is in Tbilisi and not in Brussels,” claims Ortwin Hennig.
“A decision on granting MAP to this or that country is, as a rule, made unanimously. A number of NATO member countries, including Germany, have held back from giving MAP to Georgia. However, I am sure that they will appropriately gauge Georgia’s progress on the path to NATO and will draft a package on broadening relations with Georgia, and by doing this, it will help Georgia in finding the most advantageous balance with regard to Russia,” states the respondent.
“A new type of confrontation has occurred in Europe and tensions have heightened here again; and by all odds, the Kremlin has to claim the responsibility for this. Current developments point to the fact that “peaceful measures” supported by Russia may be one more camouflaged military intervention. I don’t think that the West would ever respond militarily to Ukraine’s developments, and I do not even think that this would be a reasonable step. However, we can utilize other tools – political, economical and cultural – to hamper Russia in realizing its plans. We have suspended military and civil cooperation with this country but we have been involved with it in a political dialogue so far,” announces the diplomat.
“We cannot force our views for resolving the conflict on the conflicting sides– the parties themselves must find their own solution to this issue. I personally doubt that Russia will use force against Ukraine, however, we can easily be faced with one more frozen conflict here. On top of that, I am afraid that today Putin cannot fully exert control on those nationalist and radical powers that he has used to materialize his political objectives,” concludes the German Ambassador.
Now Tatia Maisuradze can grasp the opportunity to tell everything she knows regarding the case – Sandro Girgvliani’s father
"Melnikov’s statement is nothing new; my late spouse always used to say that Sandro was eliminated by their order. And the man who hired a murderer to liquidate my son must obviously be punished more severely that the murderer himself. The man who mandated the murderer to do away with my son might have thought that key figures having been involved in this case must also have slid into a grave along with him … Akhalaia complied with instructions from Salakhaia without hesitation. Sanodze, Donadze and other offenders stood by them too,” states Sandro Girgvliani’s father, Guram Girgvliani, in his interview with the Kvisris Palitra gazette.
“The Nationals’ statement saying that the Prosecutor’s Office has wrung testimony out of Melnikov is a sheer lie. My son’s case was solved three days after he was killed, and all evidence clearly pointing to the fact that Salakhaia’s husband, Vano Merabishvili, covered for the perpetrators of this crime earlier than others was in their hands. Later Saakashvili and Adeishvili also got involved in this case. How can the Nationals deliver such eloquent speeches today? Why don’t they bite their tongues? Are they not ashamed? These sadists killed my son and have not even thought to repent. Merabishvili and Ugulava are already behind bars but other bastards must also be jailed. Do you know how hard it is for a father to know that his son’s murderers enjoy the best conditions in prison? If you can imagine this unimaginable grief, you must definitely meet my requirement to punish these terrible criminals as it is due,” declares Mr. Girgvliani.
“The Nationals are out of their wits today – they fear that Melnikov may show the people more horrendous skeletons that they have kept in their closets. Much more acts of valor by Akhalaia may surface; Along with Merabishvili, Adeishvili, Saakashvili and everyone who was involved in this case, including the then prosecutor and investigators, must be jailed as soon as possible. And Giorgi Gviniashvili, who served as the city’s prosecutor and who falsified this case, must be placed in prison sooner than others. After my son was murdered, Tatia Maisuradze told us everything in detail. The latter and Tako Salakaia may be questioned again; and now Tatia can grasp the opportunity to tell everything she knows regarding this case. Because of pressure having been piled on her, she could have hid some facts then but now she can easily correct this mistake,” states the respondent.
To the question “precisely what did Tatia tell you then?”Guram Girgvliani answers:
“When Tatia sat near Sando and Leval, one of Salakhaia’s friends came up to her and told her that if those guys bothered her, she could have told him. “No, they are my friends,” replied Tatia… and now precisely she must tell everything else to the public. If Tatia really considered Sando to be her friend, she must undoubtedly tell the truth to us,” concludes the respondent.
