Opinion: "Arrests of officials in Georgia are a way to remove unwanted people"
Arrests of officials in Georgia
“It may simply be a method used to remove unwanted people from the team,” analyst Lela Djejalava said, commenting on the arrests of former senior officials of Georgia’s Ministry of Defense.
According to the State Security Service of Georgia, former Deputy Defense Minister Giorgi Khaindrava, former head of the ministry’s procurement department Vladimir Gudushauri, and a close relative of the then-defense minister were arrested on suspicion of embezzling large sums of budget funds.
“The tragicomedy of the ruling Georgian Dream party’s behavior is that it suddenly decided to declare war on corruption after such a long delay,” Djejalava said.
This is not a fight against corruption – it is a fight for the redistribution of power and financial influence among factions within the mafia-like syndicate known as Georgian Dream.”
She recalled that corruption scandals have repeatedly erupted within the Georgian government, including those involving former Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.
In her view, this could well be a method used to eliminate unwanted members of the team. She also posed a rhetorical question: how can the party claim its power is legitimate if – by its own admission – corruption is rampant among its top officials?
“For [Georgian Dream’s informal leader] Bidzina Ivanishvili, the most important thing is his billions and his family members. Everyone else, including those who were once in his closest circle, is merely a means to preserve these precious billions.
For him, everything is just a tool, and nothing holds real value,” Djejalava asserted.
Furthermore, she believes Ivanishvili is now sacrificing his allies – those who helped Russia bypass Western sanctions – in an attempt to clean up his image in the eyes of the United States.
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