Opposition demands special session
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, February 2
The Movement for Freedom-European Georgia opposition party calls on the government to hold a special session of Defense and Security Committees in order to answer all questions about the recent developments in the country.
Giorgi Kandelaki, stated at the press-conference that the government provided Russia with secret information about Georgian servicemen, which is a crime.
Moreover, Kandelaki had questions about the recently completed reorganization process at the Ministry of Defense, which left over 2000 people dismissed.
“When the budget of Georgia is full of so many unnecessary programs, the reduction of military costs is a wrong step,” said Kandelaki.
The party also claims that the new deal with Russian gas provider Gazprom is harmful and endangers the country’s sovereignty and independence.
“These are the most acute questions and problems…the Defense and Interior Ministers should come to Parliament and answer all our questions,” Kandelaki added.
The party has been insisting since January 24 that Russia acquired information on Georgian Vice-Colonel Gia Tsertsvadze either from the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) or the Justice Ministry of Georgia. Tertsvadze is wanted by Interpol (at Russia’s request) and he was detained in Kyiv on January 15, after Georgia did not provide him with any information declaring that he was wanted. On January 27, Tertsvadze was released from pre-trial detention through the involvement of Ukraine’s Prosecutor’s Office. However, his case is still in progress.
As for the optimization process in the Ministry of Defense, a special statement was released on Monday by the Ministry, which reads that 2250 people were dismissed and government savings amounted to over 32 million GEL.
The new deal with Gazprom is also followed by many questions from the opposition and the non-governmental organizations, who have been calling on the Energy Ministry to disclose the contract details, saying the agreement endangers Georgia’s energy independence.
The deal was reached on January 10, and under its new conditions, from 2018 Russian will give Georgia monetary compensation for the transit of Russian gas to Armenia. Previously, Russia was paying for its gas transportation by supplying natural gas to the amount of 10% of the volume of transported gas.
Defense and Interior Ministry officials have not made any comments to the request of Movement for Freedom-European Georgia as of yet.
