MP Matikashvili: Accusing Ivanishvili, who “looked after Georgia”, of making money from the budget is brazen

“Saakashvili and Gvaramia are competing with each other in brazenness,” said MP Davit Matikashvili, chair of Parliament’s Procedural Issues Committee.

He said Nika Gvaramia’s statement today confirms what a great act of charity Bidzina Ivanishvili performed in 2012 when he sent the UNM regime into the political wilderness.

“Such brazenness is unimaginable. Saakashvili and Gvaramia are competing with each other in brazenness. This is an attempt to rewrite recent history. Bidzina Ivanishvili is a philanthropist who has not earned a single tetri in Georgia, and his entire activity is a long history of charity. In 1994, when he was just starting in business, Bidzina Ivanishvili extracted money from his business and donated hundreds of tractors to Georgia. After 2002–2003, this man funded the state budget to ensure public officials received proper salaries and were not driven to corruption. But what could protect Saakashvili and people like him from corruption?! This is the man who created the patrol police and the Defence Ministry’s core infrastructure. He built facilities on such a scale and handed them over to the state. This man built churches and monasteries in Georgia. Where do I even begin? For decades, this man supported Georgian culture at a time when things were extremely hard for people working in this sphere. This is the man who looked after Georgia. To accuse him of making money at the budget’s expense is brazen. Imagine what level of political lowlife we are dealing with. Gvaramia’s statement confirms what a great act of charity Bidzina Ivanishvili performed when he sent the UNM regime into the political wilderness in 2012,” Matikashvili said.

Nika Gvaramia, leader of the Coalition for Change, told the Constitutional Court what he distances himself from in the former government’s record.

“I distance myself from the fact that it never made one particular person pay taxes and let him accumulate hundreds of millions. I distance myself from the fact that it let this particular person carry out so-called charity with money stolen from the budget, which in reality turned out to be a long-term election campaign. That one person, incidentally, is Bidzina Ivanishvili,” Gvaramia said.