Georgia's ruling party accuses opposition of planning murder provocation

Irakli Kobakhidze, Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party has accused the opposition of planning to stage murder provocation amid upcoming local self-government elections scheduled for October 2.

According to the chairman of the ruling party, “the opposition and its TV channels want to destabilize calm pre-election environment”.

According to Kobakhidze, there was a talk among the opposition about a “heavy provocation”:

“We need victims”, “We need Lekso Lashkarava 2.0” (Lekso Lashkarava is a cameraman for the Georgian TV Prveli company who died shortly after being brutally beaten by opponents of the LGBT pride in Tbilisi on July 5, 2021) – these are phrases from conversations and chats of members The United National Movement and its youth wing, including members of the Sirtskhviliya (Shame) organization, information about which is leaked daily from the party’s offices”.

According to him, the ruling party has information that among the representatives of the main opposition party UNM “there was a conversation” that the maintenance of the party and party television costs tens of millions of dollars annually, while “for a tenth of this amount you can hire a murderer and “drown one of our own”.

According to Kobakhidze, one of the representatives of the Sirtskhviliya movement was asked by the UNM leaders to “test” this idea in several chats.

“We all know what values ​​are carried by representatives of this political force. Therefore, even the most brutal provocation will be ok for them”, Kobakhidze said.

Opposition’s response

The Sirtskhviliya” movement calls the statement of the chairman of the ruling party a lie and explains that “taking into account the previous 100 statements of Kobakhidze” it is ridiculous to seriously respond to his accusations.

“If earlier fake accounts on Facebook and state media were used to spread such fake messages, now the chairman of the Georgian Dream himself has acted as a troll”, the organization said in a statement.

The Sirtskhviliya movement notes that it intends to actively participate in the election process for self-government bodies, timely disseminating transparent and documented information about violations and manipulations, within the framework of the Civil Election Commission project.

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On September 13, the media in Georgia announced that they received secret files, from which it became known that the state security service was listening and watching the members of the Synod, the patriarch, his assistants, bishops, priests, nuns, as well as active supporters of all of the above.

As it turned out, special services control the movement of clergymen, their bank transfers, and personal life. Thousands of files also contain information about the people through whom clergy could have been recruited. The documents contain information about priests who use drugs or are friends with criminals.

The files also say that in the course of operational work, 36 priests of non-traditional sexual orientation, 23 priests (including monks) who had sexual relations with women, and 21 clerics who used drugs were identified.

The authenticity of the materials has not yet been confirmed.