Roland Meskhi Appointed First Deputy to GD’s Interior Minister Gomelauri

Roland Meskhi has been appointed as the First Deputy of Vakhtang Gomelauri, the Georgian Dream’s Minister of Internal Affairs and Vice Prime Minister from the Georgian Dream party. The Ministry announced on April 24.

According to MIA, Meskhi has worked in various positions within the ministry for many years. Since July 2021, he has held the position of Deputy Director of the Tbilisi Police Department. Meskhi “holds the ranks of Police Colonel and has 20 years of experience in law enforcement,” the Ministry reports.

The appointment comes amid a very recent controversy involving Meskhi. On April 21, video footage circulated on social media showing police officers attempting to disperse demonstrators from Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi. In the footage, Meskhi appears to pull a young female activist’s hair to remove her from the scene. The appointment has thus been widely decried by activists and civil society.

Meskhi replaces Shalva Bedoidze, who has been sanctioned by the United Kingdom and the Baltic states for his alleged involvement in human rights abuses and police brutality against pro-EU demonstrators.

GD Minister Gomelauri is currently under sanctions by the United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and the Baltic countries.

On December 20, just one day after the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Gomelauri and his another deputy Mirza Kezevadze for their roles in protests crackdowns, Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze snubbed the sanctions, announcing that the targeted officials would be nominated for the Order of Honor and that the state would fully compensate any financial losses they might incur.

On January 30, GD-elected President Mikheil Kavelashvili followed through by awarding the Order of Honor to several sanctioned high-ranking Interior Ministry officials, including Bedoidze, for their “special contribution to strengthening law and order.”

The move provoked widespread public outrage and drew a sharp rebuke from President Salome Zurabishvili, who condemned the ceremony as “shameful” and referred to Kavelashvili as a “temporary tenant” of the presidential palace.

Also Read:

• 24/04/2025 – Kobakhidze Appoints New GD Infrastructure Minister
• 10/04/2025 – Consolidating Autocracy? GD Reshuffle Leaves Experts Guessing

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