On 7 June, the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili responded to the forming of a new party in Georgia by the country’s former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia (Caucasus Watch reported), stating that he was not affiliated with the party.

He stated that creating satellite, pseudo-opposition parties was a common practice under the previous, United National Movement government. “I have never thought of creating such a party while I was in politics and now, when I have left politics, I would never think to act in such an unacceptable way,” Ivanishvili said. He stressed that any political cooperation with Gakharia would have been unacceptable for him.  

Ivanishvili said that Gakharia “betrayed the ruling party and the Georgian state” when he resigned in February 2021 (Caucasus Watch reported). “He resigned with the reason that he was against the rule of law and the enforcement of the law. His decision to resign was also unreal because several days before resignation Gakharia was demanding the suspension of parliamentarian status for Nikanor Melia (to allow the court to detain him),” Ivanishvili elaborated. 

He stated that he was “deeply disappointed” by Gakharia. However, he said that Gakharia’s resignation caused no political crisis in the government “as some people forecasted this.” Ivanishvili added that the current “progressive and qualified government” managed to overcome challenges and further strengthen state institutions. 

Gakharia responded to Ivanishvili’s statements, saying that “no one and nothing can stop the truth.” “Events are developing more interestingly and faster than expected,” he added. 

Three days earlier, the Georgian Dream accused Gakharia and the UNM of planning an alleged coup in February. The GD leader Irakli Kobakhidze stated that Gakharia had been requesting to postpone Melia’s detention for a couple of days after the court ruling for “groundless reasons” and that in the meantime the UNM had intended to mobilise its supporters to form an “alternative government” in the country. He also said that the ruling party had received information about the UNM’s planned coup from Kiev and the UNM Tbilisi office, however they did not inform Gakharia, because they “already had suspicions about him.” 

Kobakhidze emphasised that up to 20 employees of the interior and defence ministries - whose names are not known - were also involved in the allegedly planned coup, which they say would have been led by the country’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili. According to him, Saakashvili was supposed to enter Georgia via the Turkish border in Sarpi and meet with activists; Giorgi Gakharia allegedly planned to resign afterwards. In his televised interview Kobakhidze spoke of the source of Gakharia’s party funding as well. Without naming the source, he said the ex-PM’s team “will not be happy” if this information became public. 

Gakharia’s “For Georgia” party responded to Kobakhidze’s statements demanding an investigation into his comments. “What we were saying initially has been proved without any further effort on our side – there is no longer a red line for the current leadership of the ruling party, as they are ready to disregard the interests of the state for the sake of retaining their power...“It is ridiculous that for the past 4 months, the current leadership of the ruling party has been saying  that they would wait for our steps and make an assessment based on that. As it turned out, following our political moves, they saw a danger of losing power and began to invent these stories, the continuation of which has already been announced. This says a lot …” the statement read. 

The UNM also responded to Kobakhidze’s comments, calling them “absurd.” “The scared Georgian Dream is trying to encourage itself ahead of the upcoming local self-government elections this fall in fear of failure. When during all… this time Giorgi Gakharia used to be their number one figure in party list, and an important crisis manager, now we hear an absurd attitude and absurd accusations,” said Khatia Dekanoidze from the UNM.