Ivanishvili says he has no levers to pull in Georgian government
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, December 5
Former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili responded to President Giorgi Margvelashvili and former Minister of Defense Irakli Alasania on December 5 regarding suggestions that he was running the country from behind the scene. Ivanishvili stated that he has no levers available to him to influence the government’s activities. The former PM offered an evidence to back-up his sentiment.
“One of the examples is the President, who does not want to speak with me. I have no levers to pull with parliament and Chair Davit Usupashvili, nor do I have any influence on Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili,” Ivanishvili says.
He stresses that statements made by Irakli Alasania are far from reality.
Ivanishvili then went on to slander Alasania, saying that he has always had problems with regard to management issues and failed to settle several problems within the defense ministry unlike other ministers.
Ivanishvili also recalled the 2012 parliamentary elections when, according to him, Alasania was responsible for the Samegrelo region. Ivanishvili says that Alasania failed in this regard as well.
“We lost the elections in Samegrelo. Locals were protesting the defeat. However, Alasania could not even provide evidence of violations there,” Ivanishvili said.
Ivanishvili also commented on the appointment of former official Aleksandre Kvitashvili to the Minister of Health in Ukraine.
He said that it would not affect Georgian-Ukrainian relations.
“The people who have not achieved success in Georgia are being appointed to high posts in Ukraine. I hope they will achieve success there and not make the same mistakes they made here in Georgia,” Ivanishvili said.
According to the former Minister of Defense and current Free Democrats leader Irakli Alasania, the country is not run by institutions, but by one person’s will and that’s why all kinds of decisions are being delayed. According to him, the man who is running the show is the founder of the Georgian Dream coalition Bidzina Ivanishvili.
He states that those things requiring 5 minutes, or even a day to be solved, are now delayed for two months due to the lack of institutional governance.
