The “iron commissar” who stopped the Russophobic pogrom in Tbilisi returns to Georgian politics
Former Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia presented his party “For Georgia” in Tbilisi. Gakharia has selected associates in whom he is completely confident, since they knew each other well from the time they were together in the ranks of the Georgian Dream political force. Georgian politics in general is characterized by a kind of Brownian movement, when politicians personally, entire parties, and political movements can move chaotically and quite sharply in any direction, including in the diametrically opposite to the previous course. The processes of division and departure from former allies are completely normal. Thus, the all-powerful opposition party “United National Movement” was divided into a whole group of factions. The Georgian Dream, which defeated it, got rid of allied parties in the same way as a rocket gets rid of burnt-out stages.
Gakharia’s team includes six members of the legislative body who left the ruling Georgian Dream party in April of this year. All of them played, if not the main, then quite noticeable roles in politics. These are the former head of the Constitutional Court Zaza Tavadze, the former head of the Georgian mission to NATO Levan Dolidze, the former head of the presidential administration Giorgi Abashishvili, the former heads of the government administration Natia Mezvrishvili and Kakhaber Kemoklidze.
The resignation of Giorgi Gakharia from the post of prime minister was quite unexpected for many. He already had ministerial experience in such important areas as economics and public order.
At the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Gakharia generally proved himself to be an “iron commissar”, managing to suppress a more than serious coup attempt with decisive and tactically competent actions. It can be said without the slightest doubt that there would not have been many people in the Georgian Dream who were capable of acting during the “Gavrilov Night” the way Gakharia acted. And he broke up with his party members precisely because, having common strategic goals, they made a mistake in choosing tactics.
Giorgi Gakharia considered it tactically incorrect to detain the leader of the opposition party “United National Movement” Nika Melia in the form of storming the party office. He calculated that such a forceful action would allow the Western patrons of the Georgian “Nazis” to reclassify the issue as a criminal one into a political one. Thus, Nika Melia from a criminal figure who stormed parliament with a crowd of “Nazis” and mercenaries, intoxicated by drugs and alcohol, destroying everything in their path, managed to inflict severe injuries on about 100 members of the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia (it was not an easy task to cripple these guys, because they were wearing body armor, helmets and shields), turned into a victim of political repression, persecution, into a “political prisoner” who had to be saved by the entire “civilized world”.
Life has confirmed that Gakharia was right, since Nika Melia not only found himself free, but also actively returned to politics.
Although UNM member Petre Tsiskarishvili expressed hope that Gakharia’s party would take away votes from the Georgian Dream in the local elections and make the task easier for the Saakashists, the latter were not at all happy about the appearance of a new party “For Georgia” on the horizon. Radical fascists from youth movements affiliated with UNM staged protests with posters in Russian with the most terrible accusation in Georgia: “Gakharia, you are for Russia”!
The former prime minister does have a “black spot” in his biography – a diploma from Moscow State University. In Georgia, they have not yet forgotten how several years ago the then Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili was accused of an equally “terrible crime” - his entire grandmother was Russian. Kvrikashvishi avoided lynching then, obviously, and Gakharia will be able to defend himself.
He explained to his future voters why he went his own way in politics, separating from the ruling Georgian Dream party.
“The only thing that Georgian Dream achieved, by what it did and how it did it, is that in fact the organizer of the storming of parliament will not be brought before the court, and justice will not prevail because Melia’s case has become politically motivated,” Gakharia emphasized.
Personally, he still considers Melius to be a criminal.
Although Giorgi Gakharia has strengthened his party with formerly famous officials and a number of veterans of Georgian football, his task is not easy.
In any case, he must conduct his election struggle by finding convincing accusations against the current government. This, of course, is his weakest point, since all these accusations can boomerang back to him, since he himself only recently headed this government that he criticized.
Will the voter believe that Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia left the ruling party for the reason that his former associates prevented him from working and bringing benefits to the country, the upcoming elections will show.
In the meantime, in the public perception, Gakharia remains among those few who curbed the “Nazis” who had gone wild beyond measure, without being afraid of their masters. And the brainless representatives of Saakashvili’s Hitler Youth can provide Gakharia with enormous help with their stupid posters.
Today in Georgia, voters who sympathize with Russia do not risk expressing their thoughts openly, as they may be subject to direct attack and physical violence from the Sonders and Stormtroopers from the opposition United National Movement party. If they are convinced that Gakharia is really close to Russia, then he will receive a lot of additional votes, since even today Georgian voters are confident that a pro-Russian course is much more beneficial for the country than a disastrous pro-Western one.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.