Ex-President Margvelashvili Denies Rumors about Becoming UNM Chairman
By Khatia Bzhalava
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Georgian TV channel Rustavi 2 has reported that the fourth President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili is becoming the chairman of the United National Movement, stressing that Margvelashvili received the offer from Mikheil Saakashvili personally and the party has already agreed on this issue.
As Margvelashvili told Palitranews TV, there has been no such offer and he is not considering his candidacy for the post of UNM chairman. According to him, this information is a lie and nobody offered the chairmanship to him ‘even jokingly’. He stressed that this issue was not discussed at the meeting, which took place between him and Saakashvili a few months ago. The ex-president of Georgia believes that spreading this information could be an attempt to cover up the alleged recordings of Bidzina Ivanishvili and Russian oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
Nika Melia, the current chairman of the United National Movement has also denied the fact. According to him, this information was developed by the special services and then sent to Imedi TV, and Rustavi 2.
“it is not pleasant to watch a journalist, especially from Rustavi 2, voice a question from an employee of a department of SSG,” he stated.
According to him, the mentioned topic was invented to cover the fact that Bidzina Ivanishvili is involved in an’ international scandal’.
Levan Bezhashvili, a member of the United National Movement, told reporters that the information is ‘absurd’, stressing that it has never been discussed or even put on the agenda. As for the recording between Ivanishvili and Evtushenkov, he assessed it as ‘scandalous’ and stated that it contains signs of crime and would be the subject of an international investigation.
Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Gharibashvili has spoken up about the recording that has been recently spread around the internet, saying that the recording is ‘incomprehensible’ whether it is an authentic conversation or not.
"We understand very well that the main goal and idea of the disseminators of these secret, falsified conversations is to start a war in Georgia. They are desperately trying to mislead the public, our international partners, with something like this,” Garibashvili stated, adding that it is impossible for him to speculate on such conversations and recordings.
