Page 8 - GEORptSep22

2.3 Georgian PM slammed Saakashvili for selling strategic facilities to Russia
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili criticised the incarcerated former President Mikheil Saakashvili for transferring "strategic facilities" to Russian state-run companies. Garibashvili also slammed his political rival for unilaterally cancelling visa requirements for Russian citizens "a few months" after the 2008 war with Russia that ended with a 20% of occupation of Georgia's territory.
In his comments over the 14th anniversary on August 8 of the Russian invasion, Garibashvili underscored that the United National Movement Government, Saakashvili's party, had "not taken any action even in organising international sanctions" against Russia after the war.
"I would like to remind our citizens once again that a few months had passed following the war, and Saakashvili had already started transferring strategic facilities to Russian state-run enterprises in 2009," Garibashvili said.
The PM also quoted the former Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili in the United National Movement Government, who in 2012 said "Russian money does not stink" in a welcoming speech for investments of Russian state-run enterprises in the country.
2.4 Unexplained wealth of top judges block Georgia’s EU path
Top Georgian judges have significant unexplained wealth that they have registered under the names of partners or relatives, indicating corruption, according to a recent investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and its Georgian partner, Studio Monitor.
To receive EU candidate status, Georgia must fulfil European Council's recommendations, one of the key areas of which is the judiciary.
One of Georgia's most influential judges, Levan Murusidze, didn't disclose assets belonging to his long-term romantic partner in asset declarations, according to the OCCRP. Assets include multiple apartments, expensive jewellery, and designer clothes she acquired in recent years. The couple's declared salaries couldn't pay for the lifestyle.
Murusidze's partner in 2015 and 2016 bought two apartments and two plots of land in Tbilisi, plus another apartment in the Black Sea resort city of Batumi, worth just over $166,000. "Purchase agreements obtained by reporters show that she paid for them out of pocket without taking out a mortgage," reads OCCRP's article.
In a previous investigation, Georgian Studio Monitor found that another influential judge, Mikheil Chinchaladze, had failed to declare several apartments and garages in Tbilisi's historic central neighbourhood of Vera that
8 GEORGIA Country Report September 2022 www.intellinews.com