Melashvili: ‘we see intensive attempts to disconnect Georgia from West’

Giorgi Melashvili, founder of the Europe-Georgia Institute, on Thursday accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of pursuing policies aimed at distancing Georgia from its Western partners.

“We are witnessing intensive attempts to detach Georgia from the West. It is both comical and tragic that at the forefront of these efforts stands a man who for years worked for the German Government,” Melashvili said.

He added the Government was returning the country to the hardships of the 1990s.

“The principle of tolerance, which was supposed to be upheld, has been completely destroyed by the Georgian Dream. Instead, we are back to something resembling the 1990s, though not even that - because back then even the criminal world had certain rules. What we see today does not fit into any framework,” he argued.

Melashvili noted that it was particularly cynical that Shalva Papuashvili, the Speaker of Parliament and former employee of GIZ (German development agency), was now attacking Germany and its ambassador “through the most anti-Western means”.