Page 7 - GEORptJul18

prevented by the Georgian constitution from standing for a third term as president, left the country shortly after his second term expired.
Since then, numerous criminal investigations have targeted the former president, from the beating of Gelashvili and murder of Girgvliani, to exceeding his powers in the raid on his political rival Arkady "Badri" Patarkatsishvili’s television station Imedi TV, and embezzlement of state funds.
Excluded from politics in his home country, Saakashvili built a new political career in Ukraine, where he supported the Euromaiden movement, and was appointed governor of the Odesa region by President Petro Poroschenko. But after falling out with Poroschenko, he was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship while on a trip to the US.
In September last year, Saakashvili re-entered Ukraine despite having no passport, dragged across the Polish-Ukrainian border by a crowd of supporters. Five months later, however, he was deported from Ukraine back to Poland , after a dramatic arrest in a downtown Kyiv restaurant; video footage from the arrest shows him being dragged out of the building with officers holding him by the hair.
Having lost both Georgian and Ukrainian citizenship, Saakashvili is now stateless. He is reportedly in the Netherlands.
2.2 Georgia’s new prime minister to cut government ministries to 10
The new Georgian government will consist of just 10 ministries — down from the current 14 — and one office of state minister, newly appointed Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze said on June 26.
Creating a “small government” was one of the changes announced by Bakhtadze when he was nominated by the ruling Georgian Dream party to take over from Giorgi Kvirikashvili, who resigned on June 13 citing disagreements with the party’s influential founder Bidzina Ivanishvili.
At a briefing on June 26, Bakhtadze talked of the benefits of a small government that would be “maximally flexible and prompt in decision-making”, a statement from the prime minister’s office said.
While no names were announced for Georgia’s new cabinet, Bakhtadze elaborated on the planned changes to the structure. Specifically, the Ministry of Culture and Sport will be integrated into the Ministry of Education and Science.
Among the other changes, the Ministry of Corrections and Probation will be integrated into the Ministry of Justice, while the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees will be abolished, and its functions will be distributed among other institutions.
The Agency for Religious Issues will merge with the Office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality.
Finally, the spatial development component of the Ministry of Economy will be
7 GEORGIA Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com