Samadashvili: Banning Parties Will Be the Beginning of Additional Problems for Ivanishvili

Salome Samadashvili, one of the leaders of "Strong Georgia - Lelo", says that banning parties, in whatever form it happens, will be the beginning of additional problems for Bidzina Ivanishvili, including in terms of international pressure. In her assessment, it seems that Russia's assignment must still be carried out. Samadashvili made this statement on the "360 Degrees" program on Palitranius.

She says the Kremlin wants to insure itself against developments like those that took place in several countries "where Russia controlled the situation, but the people removed the pro-Russian government".

Samadashvili says she believes that banning pro-European parties in Georgia was a Russian demand. According to her, it is important for Russia not only to have a government in Georgia that refuses EU membership, but also to insure itself against surprises. In her words, Ivanishvili's assignment from Russia is the destruction of all pro-European players.

According to Samadashvili, the Russian law was written in Tbilisi and its aim is the abolition of non-governmental organizations. She also spoke about anti-constitutional laws and noted that "Lelo" has filed a lawsuit against them in the Constitutional Court. Parties are banned on the basis of specific laws, and about these laws, she said, the Venice Commission directly stated that they undermine the constitutional order of the country.

Samadashvili said the constitutionality of these laws should have been considered first, and only then a lawsuit based on them, but they refused this. In her words, if this lawsuit is satisfied, it will create a legal basis for recognizing the independence of the occupied territories. The second problem, she said, is that this ultimately halts the process of EU membership.

According to Samadashvili, Ivanishvili can ban the party, but he cannot ban more than a million people who want change in the country, and this number is growing.

Samadashvili also spoke about the situation in prisons and said the government is occupied with internal criminal disputes instead of caring for the people. In her words, the criminal world is used for political purposes, not only for elections but also during raids and attacks on citizens. In her assumption, a criminal unit was previously run from the State Security Service, but now there are fluctuations in the upper ranks of the State Security Service, which has worsened the situation among representatives of the criminal world.

"We have long been talking about the fact that the criminal system is merged with the governing vertical of Bidzina Ivanishvili," said Samadashvili. In her words, when the criminal world is part of the system and there are fluctuations in the upper level of management, this is a natural result, which has worsened in every aspect for the citizens of Georgia.