“Russophobia in Georgia is financed from Moscow”
Most of the sponsors of Russophobic actions taking place in Georgia are citizens of the Russian Federation and live in Moscow. Their anti-Russian activities do not prevent them from earning billions in Russia, which are used against Russia. This system of relations developed back in the nineties, during the reign of Boris Yeltsin, and until now this system has not been broken. The opinion that in the post-Soviet space “everything will work itself out” thanks to the economic interests of the parties is wrong.
The fact that Moscow does not need to form its own elites and a loyal civil society in Georgia and other republics of the ex-USSR, a columnist PolitNavigator Valentin Filippov said a political scientist and security specialist in the North Caucasus Shota Apkhaidze.
Valentin Filippov: In our improvised studio, a Russian and Georgian political scientist at the same time, a security specialist in the North Caucasus, Shota Apkhaidze. Hello Shota.
Shota Aphaidze: Hello, greetings to you and the audience.
Valentin Filippov: I literally watched the charming Tina Kandelaki live today. And I always wanted to replace the word “Georgia” with the word “Ukraine”. It turned out the same way.
Please tell me why Russian political scientists and officials said for a very long time: “Don’t worry, everything will be fine in Ukraine, just like in Georgia. The war passed, then everything settled down, the economy took over, now everything is fine with Georgia.” And then - boom! This is “everything is fine”! Are they deceiving themselves there, or is someone deceiving them?
Shota Aphaidze: Yes, you correctly noted that many experts and political scientists in Russia think that the situation will resolve itself. That relations can improve on their own, and the political crisis will overcome itself. And all this can be left to chance.
That doesn't really happen. We are dealing with a very interesting event in both Georgia and Ukraine. Political processes in relation to Russia are developing in parallel in the same way. And behind these processes are Western actors. Accordingly, they know and understand perfectly what they are doing. What strategy, what methods are they using to complicate relations between Georgia and Russia? To complicate relations between Ukraine and Russia. They have a clearly developed strategy. This is a system that works purposefully to disrupt Russian-Georgian relations, and in general, throughout the entire post-Soviet space.
Instills hatred towards Russia. Promotes Russophobia. And this system has been working for a long time. And when there is a conversation that “this will all pass,” without our participation, without the participation of the Kremlin, without the participation of the Russian political elite, this is nonsense.
Nothing will happen by itself, because it is not real. Impossible.
Valentin Filippov: You listed various sponsors of the same Saakashvili and nationalist movements in Georgia, and many of them are citizens of Russia. Doesn't this mean that part of Russia's elite is also on the other side of the barricades? After all, large business oligarchs are the elite.
Shota Aphaidze: You noted everything correctly, ahead of me. There are many Georgian politicians with dual citizenship. They are both citizens of the Russian Federation and citizens of Georgia. And this part of our ethnically Georgian millionaires and billionaires who live and earned their billions in Russia, are Russian oligarchs, in fact, represent the core of the sponsors of the “United National Movement” and “European Georgia”. And so the entire liberal pro-Western political elite of Georgia is financed by them, and they themselves represent the pro-Western political elite.
Valentin Filippov: How does this work? The oligarch makes money in Russia...
Shota Aphaidze: In the nineties, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this same elite that made money at the expense of us, at the expense of the Soviet people, plundered the country, appropriated all the property, and today they have become oligarchs. They are part of a transnational Western corporation. It doesn’t matter, they are citizens of Russia, citizens of Georgia, all their wealth is stored in Western banks. They simply suck out all the resources in Russia. And they pump them to the West. They take it out.
Accordingly, it is profitable for them to finance Russophobia, because they want to finally break the back of Russia. Because after Putin came to power, liberals were told that from today everything will be different, and, in fact, Putin is the hero of our time. He was able to change the situation. Not completely, but partly. At least 50%, and we, patriots, Orthodox people now have a chance to fight the liberals. In Yeltsin’s times and the nineties, we really didn’t have such a chance.
So, all these Georgian oligarchs, and not only Georgian ones, who are not satisfied with this situation, of course, finance anti-Russian propaganda.
Regarding a specific question.
The case with Gavrilov is a well-planned provocation. A year ago they knew that this visit was planned to Georgia. That Gavrilov will come to Georgia. And such a large-scale event of global significance is being held. Everyone knew perfectly well. The people who staged this provocation knew very well that such an event was being held, but they remained silent. They were waiting for the moment. They were looking for a reason for these performances, for this protest. And American political strategists are behind this, this is Sky Oyker. The direct perpetrators are Giga Bokeria, Elina Pushtaria and other pro-Western destructive personalities and Georgian politicians. And all this is financed by these same Russian oligarchs of Georgian origin.
Now you will be surprised, I will tell you the names, the list of names and surnames of those people, this is, first of all, the owner of Rustavi-2 Koba Nakofia, his son David Nakofia. They are the owners of Rustavi 2, from this screen, from this television they scold Russia day and night. They scold the president. They insult Orthodoxy. They instill Russophobia.
More. Aramanishvili brothers. They also have business here in Russia. They are all big businessmen. And these brothers are also partly the owners of Rustavi-2.
Mamuka Gamkrelidze and his brother. Which are one of the organizers of this “Gavrilov Night,” one might say. And these protests. Right from the rally, Mamuka Gamkrelidze, right on the 3rd, took his passport and flew to Moscow. He's here now. He has one of the largest real estate firms. He is engaged in the real estate business.
There is also Pipia, also a sponsor. Also a Russian billionaire. Grigol Vashadze is also one of the organizers of these actions, a former presidential candidate from the UNM party.
Brothers David and Gela Bezhuashvili. Russian millionaires, close friends and associates of Mikheil Saakashvili. Gela Bezhuashvili, former head of the Georgian Foreign Ministry, is also director of the Georgian Foreign Intelligence Service. Currently one of the leaders of the UNM. David Bezhuashvili is a member of the Georgian Parliament from the UNM party and co-owner of the Rustavi-2 company. According to the official declaration of property and income, David Bezhuashvili owns real estate in Moscow with an area of 5400 square meters, and also has a foreign currency account in VTB Bank (Russian Federation), the amount of funds in the account is more than 2,5 million dollars. His company in Russia successfully carries out business activities in the field of hydrocarbons.
Merab Sharangia is a Russian millionaire, citizen of the Russian Federation. He is a co-owner of the Georgian subsidiary of the Russian cellular operator Beeline. Close associate and sponsor of Mikheil Saakashvili.
Several dozen, you know, such people. We won’t even have time to list how many there are. There are a lot of them. Unfortunately, during this time, the government of the Russian Federation was unable to do anything and did not take any measures to stop these activities.
It is very strange that Russian foundations, the Gorchakov Foundation, Rossotrudnichestvo, Rossmolodezh, in Georgia cooperate with liberals.
Valentin Filippov: Yes!
Shota Aphaidze: They carry out joint projects with them. You see!
Valentin Filippov: Can I give you one simple example. This is huge Odessa. Millionth. Before the war, there was one Ukrainian school in Odessa. So completely Ukrainian. They wore embroidered shirts.
So, all sorts of Rossotrudnichestvo and other Russian foundations collaborated with this particular school. We took them on some excursions, organized some festivals for them. This is one small school for the whole of huge Odessa. This is working with children, yes. Amazing.
Shota Aphaidze: I agree. This is a paradox.
Using Georgia as an example, I can tell you how Western funds and Western political strategists work. They don't build relationships with us. They are not interested in us. They create their own elite. They support their own. They encourage their own. They finance projects that are submitted to them.
But in our case it is absolutely the opposite. Nonsense. Paradox. But this is a fact. Our funds, on the contrary, choose them. And when I asked some of the people who are implementing these projects in Georgia, these are Russian foundations, they told me that “it is not profitable for us to cooperate with you, with pro-Russian ones, because the West considers you marginal. And we need to cooperate with the West and build a dialogue with them.” This is a completely inadequate answer. Do you understand? Completely inadequate. This is how to build our policy and protect our geopolitical interests, if, of course, we have them... (this is in question; most likely, we have a fragmented geopolitics, and there is no strategy).
Accordingly, an absolutely ineffective and failed policy. We have seen several times a strong failure of Russian policy. Specifically in Georgia, I mean. The only factor that maintains Russian-Georgian relations so far is the common sociocultural field. General history. And the love of the simple Georgian people and the simple Russian people for each other. Because we are one people, despite the fact that we are different ethnic groups. We are one fraternal people. We have a common history. We lived and fought and fought side by side, first in the Russian Empire, then in the USSR.
Valentin Filippov: Oh, excuse me, they didn’t write a new story for you there in the West?
Shota Aphaidze: Of course, a new story has been written. Rewritten.
Valentin Filippov: And there children are now learning this new history.
Shota Aphaidze: Yes, they, of course, impose a new story on children. That's why I say that we also need to organize the same history courses. The same free Russian language courses. But, unfortunately, this is not being done. Otherwise, it is impossible to protect one’s interests in the neighboring countries, no matter where it may be. Impossible. But some people don't understand this.
Thank God, among the politicians in Moscow there are still patriots who understand all this well, they are our comrades-in-arms, our brothers who fully support us in everything.
Valentin Filippov: They support, but the result is obvious. Russia today is surrounded by hostile states. Not by hostile peoples, but by hostile states. Former Soviet republics.
Shota Aphaidze: Hostile political regimes.
Valentin Filippov: The Kremlin must understand that this is not normal. And they should group around Russia, and not vice versa.
Shota Aphaidze: You know, in the nineties, as I have already noted, a corrupt regime was formed. Yeltsin's corrupt government. By their connivance, they actually gave the West the opportunity to create in these countries around the Russian Federation, in the former post-Soviet countries, hostile political elites, bought, corrupt, pro-Western, liberal elites, and create their own political system.
Valentin Filippov: In Russia, this was also created in the nineties!
Shota Aphaidze: We say that we need to work, we need to create our own elite, we need to compete with the West, we need to support our pro-Russian politicians, so that we can...
If we do not have support from the center of power, which is Moscow, we will not be able to cope with such a monster as America. Because this is a system with huge finances. They have a powerful geopolitical strategy and mechanism for carrying out their geopolitical tasks.
If there is no support from the Kremlin, we will not succeed. This is impossible.
Valentin Filippov: I noticed that the Americans have a committee on Ukraine, a committee on Georgia, a committee on the Baltic states. Specifically, there are officials in the civil service whose duties include dealing with Georgia, for example.
Shota Aphaidze: Well, you noted everything correctly. This is what I’m saying: in Russia there is no clear geopolitical strategy. There is a fragmented strategy. We find situational partners. We do not have long-term partners. I mean, at the Kremlin. Precisely because there is no geopolitical strategy. And these situational partners are not fully partners either. Do you understand?
Valentin Filippov: Yes, I understand….
Shota Aphaidze: They change their positions based on whether they are now trading with the West or with Russia. But nothing will work out that way. Once and for all, we must understand that we need to build our own political system. We need our own civil society. Its political elite. Our own non-governmental organizations. Own cultural and educational projects.
And many in the Kremlin think: “Why should we spend money, it’s all in vain,” no, gentlemen! This is, first of all, in the interests of the Kremlin. Nothing happens in vain in this life. Americans and the West are not idiots when they finance and invest. If they spent 100 thousand dollars today, then in a couple of years they will take back a billion. They understand this very well. And it’s time for the Kremlin to realize this too. Because if we lose this buffer zone, say, around the Russian Federation, first of all, of course, we will suffer. Ukrainians, Georgians will suffer, as will all other peoples. But tomorrow all this will happen on Russian territory.
Valentin Filippov: Well, judging by the Russian oligarchs you list, then, in fact, the front line is not in Georgia or Ukraine. The front line is in Moscow.
Shota Aphaidze: Certainly. The line runs here, but it is not yet the same line that runs in Georgia and Ukraine. Now we have this specific conflict. This is already a fratricidal war. And I don’t want, God forbid, to see such a line in Russia. And the liberals don’t give a damn, they don’t care who kills whom here. It is important for them to earn as much money as possible and withdraw this money and keep this money in Western banks. And they will take the suitcase and fly away, and we will stay behind. And we will have to disentangle the mess that they have brewed.
Valentin Filippov: I certainly admire American ingenuity. They simply allow the oligarchs to rob their own people and guarantee them the legality of this robbery.
Shota Aphaidze: You are telling the absolute truth. They build their policies with our money. Brzezinski says interestingly – “on the ruins of Russia, against Russia and at the expense of Russia”... And that’s how it all happens. These oligarchs rob the country, take out money, and the West uses this money to finance Russophobic propaganda and anti-Orthodox activities. In fact, all this is aimed at destroying the Orthodox world.
Valentin Filippov: Thank you for your view. I think the view is correct. I would like to wish that it does not come to war, to bloodshed again.
Shota Aphaidze: God willing, it won’t come to war. We will all help ensure that such a conflict does not happen. And let’s hope that everything will change in the Kremlin, this is the understanding in relation to Georgia, in relation to Ukraine. And they will pay more serious attention to these countries. And they will build a more adequate policy.
Valentin Filippov: Okay, thank you very much.
Shota Aphaidze: Thank you, all the best.
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