Opinion: 'Ivanishvili’s dictatorship takes hold in Georgia'
Opinion: Georgia is under Ivanishvili’s dictatorship
According to Sandro Baramidze, a representative of Transparency International Georgia, the country is now under the dictatorship of a single man — Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chairman of Georgian Dream and Georgia’s de facto ruler.
Baramidze commented on Georgian Dream’s recent push to investigate alleged corruption among former high-ranking officials, saying the government’s actions are not a genuine fight against corruption but rather a selective exposure of isolated cases.
Transparency International Georgia (TI) issued a statement revealing evidence of corruption among former senior Georgian officials, noting it has documented 250 cases of high-level corruption over the past five years. At a press briefing, the organisation presented several schemes allegedly used by top officials for personal enrichment.
According to the organisation, 221 senior officials are implicated in the corruption schemes, including 38 ministers and deputy ministers, 40 members of parliament, 17 judges, and 67 high-ranking municipal officials.
Sandro Baramidze said: “Georgian Dream is now simply eliminating its competitors — at least trying to remove three [opposition forces], and the [constitutional lawsuit to ban parties] serves exactly this purpose.
This is a typical dictatorship, established by one man who simply does not want to hear critical opinions or see rivals in parliament. Yes, Gakharia’s party was allowed [into parliament] — there were probably negotiations and a deal, I don’t know, that’s their business. But look at Gakharia’s party’s results in the municipal elections. With that level of support, it will not be able to pass the threshold in the next parliamentary elections, whatever form they take: regular or early.”
“The investigation into individual former officials is not a genuine fight against corruption, because corruption under Georgian Dream is systemic and widespread.
Our organisation has published very significant figures. We identified 250 high-level cases of corruption, 221 of which involved senior officials — ministers, their deputies, judges, members of parliament, and municipal leaders. There are strong grounds to speak of a decade-long corruption network amounting to up to five billion dollars, linked to public procurement.
Does anyone in power talk about corruption on this scale? They have previously claimed that corruption does not exist and that everything is fine. Three months ago, the head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Kuprashvili, said he had reviewed the declarations of former Prime Minister Garibashvili, former SSS head Liluashvili, and others, and found nothing. Now it turns out there were very serious problems?
These are not isolated cases — there are at least 250. This is not about individual officials, but about the entire system.
Where there is political corruption, where one person has seized control of state institutions and unilaterally appoints officials across the board, financial and economic corruption inevitably follows.”
Opinion: Georgia is under Ivanishvili’s dictatorship
