Today at a Tbilisi cemetery unidentified people shot the former State Minister for European Integration Alexi Petriashvili in the legs while he was surrounded by his friends near the grave of former diplomat Levan Mikeladze at the time of the murder attempt. Petriashvili was accompanied by three men at that time, the Interior Ministry reported earlier.
He is currently being operated on in the Republican hospital. According to doctors, his condition is considered to be stable. The Georgian Interior Ministry has opened a criminal case under article 117 of the Georgian Criminal Code (intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm).
Alexi Petriashvili is one of the leaders of the Free Democrats opposition party, which is headed by former Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania. He was the State Minister for Integration in European and Euro-Atlantic structures from October 2012 to November 2014.
A correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza interviewed Georgian experts about possible political reasons for the crime and the upcoming parliamentary elections.
A political scientist, the head of the Management Strategy Institute Peter Mamradze, assured in an interview with the VK correspondent that the crime had no political component and wasn't connected with the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The political scientist, the head of the management strategy institute Peter Mamradze assured in an interview with the VK correspondent that the crime had no political component and wasn't connected with the upcoming parliamentary elections.
"It is absolutely impossible, as there are no political forces that can consider Petriashvili as an opponent from Alasania and his team who should be eliminated physically or eliminated from the political path with the help of such attacks. It is a completely personal, single factor. Petriashvili's friends who were with him at the cemetery where the incident occurred also said there were no connections with the political activities of Petriashvili," the analyst said.
A political scientist, president of the Club of Independent Experts Josef Tsiskarishvili, expressed a more cautious opinion about the attack on Alexi Petriashvili.
"It is very difficult to speak now about some specific areas. But in any case, when a former member of the government and the secretary general of one of the highest political parties and already well-established politician is attacked in this way, the situation leads to rumors, which are likely to appear tomorrow. He was one of the most successful students at the University of Tbilisi. Moreover I know his family and he has never been involved in any showdowns, or any corrupt schemes," the analyst said.
Political scientist Georgy Nodia also believes that the attack on the politician has no political component: "In theory everything is possible, but there is no ground to stick to this version. It is very strange that Petriashvili has never been a confrontational figure, that is why so the political component is not the first thing that comes to my mind. Although nothing can exclude the theory," he said.
