Ex-Defence Minister announces political plans
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, April 15
Former Defense Minister of Irakli Okruashvili, who was one of the closest allies to ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili before opposing him, intends to return to politics and is about to present his team in a month.
Okruashvili said he has had “quite interesting meetings in the process of assembling the team.”
“We will try to prevent the current state leadership from spoiling everything as a minimum. As a maximum, we will provide positive changes in the country.
“We have the ability and experience to do so. I am gathering my team; I hold meetings with a lot of interesting people. Then, we will publicly unveil our plans. But everything depends on Ivanishvili’s [founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party] behavior. If he speeds up the events, we will also speed up our actions, "Okruashvili told the local media.
Okruashvili was one of the closest allies of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili and was the country’s Defence Minister for two years, from 2004 to 2006, when he was dismissed.
In 2007 he made a stirring comeback to politics and openly confronted Saakashvili and his government.
That same year, Okruashvili was briefly arrested at his party headquarters on charges of corruption, money laundering and abuse of office.
In 2007, he left Georgia and was granted political asylum in France. He returned to Georgia on November 20, 2012, after the Georgian Dream coalition, led by Ivanishvili, defeated the nine-year-rule of the United National Movement.
After his return, some of the charges against him dropped and he was cleared of other charges by the Georgian court in January 2013.
