Georgia. Fate of the former president (a view from Tbilisi)

Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

The Georgian prosecution service answered an urgent question: will former president Mikhail Saakashvili be officially involved in the numerous criminal cases initiated against his supporters? A representative of the General Prosecution Service stated that investigators had decided to summon Saakashvili for interrogation as a witness. However, if he doesn’t attend on March 27th, he will be put on the international wanted list.

The former president responded immediately. He told journalists that he wouldn’t return to the motherland from the USA, as he didn’t want “to play by the rules of Putin and Ivanishvili.” Saakashvili is sure that the authorities hunted him down on the orders of Vladimir Putin, while the Russian leader hates his opponent “for activity during the revolution in Ukraine.”

The general prosecution service had many possible accusations: the amnesty for the police officials sentenced for kidnapping and killing Sandro Girgvliani, an employee of the United Georgian Bank, deprivation of property (including TV-Imedi) of the late businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, “a royal gift” in the form of state property to businessman Kakha Bendukidze, jewellery to favorite ladies from the former ruling party, the United National Movement, at public expense, and falsification of evidence in the case of the late prime Minister Zurab Zhvania’s death.

The former president is not secured by immunity, but lawyers note that the prosecution’s evidential base is fragile and illogical in some cases. For example, is it possible to accuse the head of state of that he used his constitutional right to give prisoners amnesty? Of course, the decision is ambiguous from moral and political points of view. But it is as legal as the gas agreement signed by the former premier of Ukraine, Yulia Timoshenko.

The US authorities stated that they were sorry that Saakashvili had been summoned for interrogation. They say that Washington won’t agree with the loose interpretation of the abuse-of-power article of the Criminal Code, just as in the case of the former Ukrainian premier. Thus, Mikhail Saakashvili may turn into a “Georgian Yulia” for the West, and this could negatively influence the ruling coalition of the Georgian Dream, which strives for NATO and EU membership.

There is a theory that the team of Ivanishvili-Garibashvili is irritating the West on purpose so that Washington and Brussels postpone signing the agreement on European association or granting the MAP to Georgia on joining NATO, and Russia would have no opportunity to conduct the Crimean scenario in Georgia. However, this theory is too highbrow. It seems the ruling coalition wants to gain the support of a significant part of the population which hates Saakashvili at the upcoming municipal elections, while the Western sanctions are not considered to be real in the context of the Crimean events.