Abkhazian war veteran: No one saw Saakashvili in Abkhazia

Lieutenant Colonel Malkhaz Topuria, a veteran of the Abkhazia and 2008 wars, said after being questioned at the Prosecutor General’s Office as part of an investigation into alleged treason and sabotage that attempts to portray Giorgi Baramidze’s recent statements as merely a failure to properly convey his thoughts were unconvincing.

According to Topuria, Baramidze has continued making similar statements for four consecutive days and “could not have been unaware of the magnitude of the harm he was causing.”

“The Prosecutor’s Office was interested in Giorgi Baramidze’s connection to the war in Abkhazia and the prisoner exchange process. I remembered another of Baramidze’s ‘words of wisdom’ from that time: ‘I’m making a documentary film about myself; I need more footage for it.’

I have never had a particularly high opinion of Baramidze’s intellectual abilities, but he is not so unintelligent that he would make a statement damaging to the country simply out of stupidity.

Many are now trying to say that he simply failed to convey his meaning, but for four days he has continued saying the same thing and has not stopped. Most importantly, he could not have been unaware of the magnitude of the harm he was causing.

At the very least, the aim of the investigation is to establish the facts and make this man admit that he is either a gossip or identify who was carrying out the execution. Of course, he is a gossip and will not be able to name anyone.

Saakashvili, too, has now been added to Baramidze’s Münchausen syndrome—he says, ‘I was also in the Abkhazia war.’ It is unbelievable that this has become both a comedy and a tragedy for our country. He was never there and never flew there,” Topuria said.

For context, on August 8, Georgia’s ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili wrote on social media that he and Baramidze had been longtime friends and comrades, describing Baramidze as “one of the greatest patriots” he had ever met. Saakashvili also said that the two had worked together on prisoner exchanges during the Abkhazia war and had traveled together to Sukhumi and Gudauta, where they had nearly been captured.

Gia Baramidze, a member of the United National Movement, recently claimed that “during the war in Abkhazia, Georgian military personnel executed prisoners”, and that this was why the Abkhaz side did not hand over prisoners. Following a request from the State Service of Veterans Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office launched an investigation on August 7 into alleged treason and sabotage in connection with Baramidze’s statement.