Authorities set to declare opposition MP Okriashvili as an oligarch – UNM’s Gotsiridze

Roman Gotsiridze, an MP of the United National Movement opposition party, on Monday told Front News that the ruling Georgian Dream party was expected to declare the party MP Kakha Okriashvili, a co-founder of PSP pharmacy network, as an oligarch, in comments of the recent statement of the country’s prime minister Irakli Garibashvili. 

The official on Monday said he had heard “alarming information” that the PSP pharmacy employees advised consumers to make a choice between “expensive quality medication and their low-quality Turkish alternatives” following his earlier initiative to open the domestic market for Turkish medication in a bid to reduce prices on a number of medications. 

“The PM’s statement is nothing more than the prosecution of the businesspeople clitical of them. Garibashvili just voiced a rumor. Will he say that [unchecked information] if it were related to any other company [loyal to the government]?” Gotsiridze asked. 

The MP claimed that the ruling party would use the deoligarchisation bill, which has been adopted with its two readings, to “oppress the opposition figures and their supporters”.

“The PM’s statement is just a preparatory work for this”, Gotsiridze said. 

Only one reading is left for the final approval of the ruling party-proposed deoligarchisation bill, which they say is similar to the Ukrainian legislation and is mandatory to meet one of the 12 conditions for the country’s European Union membership candidate status.