Saakashvili Says Some Politicians ‘Begging for Money from Our Enemies’
President Saakashvili said on July 3, that attempts by “corrupt representatives of old elites” to undermine Georgia “are doomed for a failure”
He said that Georgia was now “genuinely becoming independent” and Soviet-old “KGB agents, corrupt representatives of old elites and some elements armed with patriotic slogans but in fact acting against Georgia are now hysterically getting united trying to succeed in this last battle.”
Saakashvili was speaking at a live televised government meeting held in Batumi, Adjara Autonomous Republic.
In an attempt to demonstrate that construction works have not been ceased in Adjara, the meeting was held on one of the construction sites in Batumi. A long conference table with the President, ministers and senior officials sitting around it, stood in the middle of the construction site. Workers were seen in the footage keeping their work and a tower crane moving construction materials close to the conference table.
“In recent days and weeks we are witnessing some of Georgian ‘politicians’ – I use scare quotes here – going [abroad] and begging Georgia’s enemies for money for their political activities. I guess there are no doubts already about it,” Saakashvili said.
He was referring to two meetings – one held in Berlin between ex-interior minister Kakha Targamadze and two opposition politicians, Levan Gachechiladze and Davit Gamkrelidze; and another one held in Kiev between Nino Burjanadze, ex-parliamentary speaker and Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk.
“I hear it for the first time when one calls our enemy, who wants to destroy our country, an investor and a sponsor,” Saakashvili said and added sarcastically: “It seems to be a new name for the enemy.”
Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of New Rights Party, part of Alliance for Georgia, said when asked to comment on Burjanadze’s meeting with Pinchuk, that the latter was a potential investor in Georgia’s economy in the future.
Saakashvili also said that the major reasons “why Batumi is developing so well is that there is not a single ‘cell’ in Batumi” – referring to the opposition’s mocked up prison cells blocking Rustaveli Avenue outside the Parliament in Tbilisi as part of their ongoing protest.
“There are no ‘cells’ in Batumi, but instead there are about 50 construction sites in the Batumi center. Nothing is being constructing where there are ‘cells’. We should make a choice: do we want ‘cells’ or five-star hotels capable to employ thousands of our citizens and to pay hundreds of millions to the budget. That’s the choice our society is facing,” Saakashvili said.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
