Kakhi Kaladze shifts from football to politics

Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

Recently Tbilisi hosted “a farewell match” with the former captain of the Georgian national football team Kakhi Kaladze. His friends and colleagues from“Dynamo Kiev and AC Milan” came to say goodbye to the well-known player. Representatives of three generations of Milan were on the pitch, including Franko Baresi, Paolo Maldini, Fabio Cannavaro, Filippo Inzaghi, and Andrey Shevchenko.

The match was between Milan with which Kakhi twice won the Champions League and “the team of Kaladze’s friends” which gathered players from Tbilisi and Kiev Dynamos and Italian Genoa where Kakhi finished his Italian career.

The team of “Kaladze’s friends” included the former forward of the Georgian national team Georgy Demetradze who had recently been released from prison as “the political prisoner of Saakashvili’s regime.” He was arrested for “cooperation with the criminal world.” Georgy’s arrest was the main reason for Kaladze’s appearance in politics as a strict opponent to President. He achieved including Demetradze’s name into the list of political prisoners and “Deme” was set free.

Kala, that’s how friends call Kaladze, played a half of the match for each team, and Milan won due to its high professionalism and cooperation, 3-1. In general the event was bright and joyful. The main arena of the country was full: about 60,000 people came to see the goodbye match. Premier Ivanishvili’s son Bera, the popular artist, sang for Kakhi.

Kaladze is very popular among football fans. He was the first Georgian football player who got an opportunity to play in one of the leaders of European and world football. Times were different. Any football major club would sign up David Kipiani, Alexander Chivadze or Vova Gutsayev – representatives of the brilliant generation of Dynamo Tbilisi of the early 1980s, who won the Cup of European countries’ cup winners.

The football farewell of Kakhi had to find response in politics. Today Kaladze is not only a former player, but also the vice-premier of the Georgian government and one of the leaders of Premier’s team. Ivanishvili has many times stated that thinks Kaladze is one of the best ministers. Moreover, the ruling coalition considered Kaladze as one of presidential candidates, but the vice-premier rejected the opportunity, referring to absence of experience. However, sociologists said that Kaladze’s chances for the presidential position shouldn’t be underestimated: “He could successfully compete with any candidate, considering resources of Georgian Dream, his chances would be bigger,” the head of the sociological service Gorbi, Merab Pachulia, explained Vestnik Kavkaza.

According to him, promotion of Kakhi as a successful player, his high-class style and friendship with Premier made ratings grow even without nominating him to the presidential position. In reality Kaladze really appeared to be a successful minister. For example, recently he has softened and then settled a difficult problem over Tbilisi gas distribution network which belongs to the Kazakh company Kaztransgaz (Seehttp://vestnikkavkaza.net/analysis/economy/39179.html).

Ahead of the goodbye match the minister of energy visited Kazakhstan. His position was weak (the demand of returning the company was reasonable), but Kaladze showed unique diplomatic skills, focusing on Astana’s interest in the South Caucasus transport communications as an alternative route for Kazakhstan cargo transportation (including oil) to the West. “Next year Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will begin operation. It will connect Kazakhstan with Europe through Azerbaijan and Georgia,” the PM of Kazakhstan Serik Ahmetov said after the meeting with the Georgian guest.

As for the fate of Kaztransgaz, the sides agreed to establish a special commission for development of a mutual decision. It is obvious that the result of the visit is more beneficial for Tbilisi. The success in Astana will improve Kaladze’s positions in the government and together with popularity among people will enable him to remain in the Georgian political elite for many years.