Secret meeting: Confederation with Abkhazia discussed in Tbilisi?
Volsky and Hidasheli meeting
In the “Melograno” café, located near the parliament building, Gia Volsky, the first deputy speaker of the Georgian Parliament, met with David Hidasheli, a businessman close to the Kremlin.
Members of the opposition party “Droa,” Elene Khoshtaria, Natia Letodiani, and Zura Sardjveladze, distributed information about this meeting. Letodiani and Sardjveladze were also in the café and witnessed the meeting. They heard the details of the conversation and shared a photo of Volsky and Hidasheli on Facebook.
The main topic of conversation was the restoration of relations with the occupied Abkhazia.
What Hidasheli and Volsky discussed
Members of “Droa” report that they were sitting in the café during the meeting and heard the conversation. The “Droa” Facebook page lists the main points of the discussion:
- Russian oligarch David Hidasheli directly communicated with representatives of the so-called government of Abkhazia and informed Gia Volsky, the First Deputy Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, of their positions. Hidasheli mentioned the so-called minister of state security of Abkhazia, former high-ranking official [Robert Kiut];
- Hidasheli discussed with Volsky the confederation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia;
- Hidasheli spoke with Volsky about the importation of goods and business relationships in occupied Abkhazia;
- “37 km of railway in Abkhazia are destroyed” – Hidasheli discussed with Volsky the restoration of the railway in Abkhazia;
- “Seven companies and 20 percent VAT” – Hidasheli told Volsky;
- “If I bring up this topic, I need to know that some steps should be taken within a week,” – said Gia Volsky to Hidasheli;
- “I told Garibashvili about the importance of establishing relations and communication with five key ministers of Abkhazia who make all the decisions,” – Hidasheli told Volsky.
- “You have a topic and you need a direction,” — said Gia Volsky to David Hidasheli.
Gia Volsky`s commentary
Volsky had to comment on this meeting for journalists several times.
He confirmed that he indeed had a conversation with Hidasheli about Abkhazia. According to Volsky, he had not known Hidasheli before; the businessman himself reached out and asked for a meeting.
Volsky said that his conversation with Hidasheli covered several topics:
Hidasheli stated that it was important for Georgian government representatives to establish good personal relations with the Abkhaz side.
“He [Hidasheli] said that it would be good if there were good personal relations with the Abkhaz side… I reminded him that the Abkhaz side should be treated as an independent republic of Abkhazia, and this condition makes it impossible to establish any personal contacts or relations,” Volsky says.
Volsky also confirmed that the topic of a confederation was discussed during the meeting. Hidasheli told Volsky that “it would be good to create a confederation with Abkhazia.”
“As for the confederation, this word was mentioned quite loudly, so that people sitting nearby turned around… Most of the public knows that a confederation is possible, but in such a situation, it is not appropriate to discuss it. There are no prerequisites. I mentioned the confederation, but that doesn’t mean there was a discussion,” says Volsky.
In a conversation with “TV Pirveli,” Volsky noted that he did not discuss the topic of relations with Russia with Hidasheli.
“No topics related to relations with Russia were discussed, except for him saying that it would be good to return to the agreement that existed with Georgia in 2011.”
Volsky also confirmed that the creation of “trade corridors” between Russia, Georgia, and Armenia through the territories of occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia was discussed at the meeting. This agreement was signed between Georgia and Russia in 2011 before Russia’s accession to the World trade organization.
During the conversation with journalists, the deputy from “Georgian Dream” also emphasized that Hidasheli did not communicate with him on behalf of “Georgian Dream.”
When asked about the status in which Hidasheli was speaking with him, Gia Volsky said, “Without any status and on no one’s behalf. There are people who just share their opinions with others.”
Comment from Abkhazia
This news has already been commented on from Sukhumi. The so-called minister of internal affairs of the occupied Abkhazia denies negotiations with businessman David Hidasheli. In a comment for “Echo of the Caucasus,” Robert Kiut stated that he only knows about Gia Volsky, the first deputy speaker of the Georgian parliament, from the media.
“I have never seen this Hidasheli, and I only know about Volsky from information disseminated in the media… No negotiations were held, especially with them,” said Robert Kiut.
According to Kiut, the information circulated is absurd, and issues related to the restoration of railways are not within his competence.
Expert analyses
Georgian analysts believe that the topic of Abkhazia is essential for the “Georgian Dream” party before the elections to demonstrate to voters that concrete steps are supposedly being taken to restore territorial integrity.
Political scientists think that this indicates that “Georgian Dream,” preparing for the 2024 parliamentary elections, will start to speculate on the topics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“This all contributes to the illusion of restoring territorial integrity. An illusion because the current relations with Russia make solving these problems unrealistic. It’s about the illusion of solving a problem that ‘Dream’ wants to sell to the voter,” said the founder of the Center for strategic analysis of Georgia, Giorgi Rukhadze, to Radio Liberty.
Independent deputy Teona Akubardia believes that what is happening confirms the increasing dependence of Georgian power on Putin’s Russia.
“Georgian Dream” admits that an open meeting with the Moscow embassy and the discussion of political or business schemes are possible. Now they calmly discuss issues about creating trade-economic ties with Abkhazia, and this is entirely in Russia’s interests.”
Who is David Hidasheli
David Hidasheli is a businessman of Georgian origin who operates in Russia and has close ties with the Russian oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov. Yevtushenkov, the owner of the large Russian corporation “Sistema,” was one of the first to face UK sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On the other hand, Yevtushenkov is a person close to Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Hidasheli has previously appeared in the Georgian political scene during the electoral period.
In Georgia, he is known for the so-called “cartographers’ case.” David Hidasheli at that time brought maps he claimed to have obtained from archives. Following his initiative, an investigation began in Georgia into the case of delimitation and demarcation of the state border against former members of the Commission on Delimitation and Demarcation, Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilyichova.
According to the investigation, Ilyichova and Melashvili, under the orders of the previous government, falsified maps in favor of Azerbaijan and transferred a part of Davit Gareji to Azerbaijan. All this occurred on the eve of the elections, and the entire pre-election campaign of “Georgian Dream” was built on this patriotic slogan “Gareji is Georgia.”
“Dream,” with the help of Hidasheli, tried to attribute the return of Georgian lands to itself and thus manipulate the public before the elections. For this, Ivanishvili publicly thanked Hidasheli and called him a “hero.”
