Head of Georgia’s State Security Service demoted to Minister of Regional Development

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has announced that Grigol Liluashvili has left his position as the head of State Security Service of Georgia (SSG) and will take up a new position as Minister of Regional Development. He will be replaced by Anri Okhanashvili, who previously held the post of Minister of Justice.

Kobakhidze announced at a briefing on Wednesday that Paata Salia, a member of the parliamentary majority, would be appointed to replace Okhanashvili as Justice Minister.

Kobakhidze said that ‘based on consultations with the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament and the parliamentary majority, the Georgian Parliament will vote on the approval of Anri Okhanashvili on Friday of this week’.

According to Kobakhidze, Liluashvili’s new role is part of a division of the old Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure, with Liluashvili assigned to regional development, and Irakli Karseladze to infrastructure. He additionally stated that one of the Ministry of Regional Development’s ‘most important missions will be to ensure maximum efficiency and cost-effectiveness of measures related to regional development’.

From 2016–2017, Liluashvili was the Chair of the Regional Policy and Self-Government Committee of parliament.

In 2019, he held the position of First Deputy Head of the SSG and from December 2017 to January 2019, he held the position of Deputy Head.

From 2002 to 2016, he held leading positions in organisations associated with billionaire founder and honorary chair of the ruling Georgian Dream Bidzina Ivanishvili, including the ATU Foundation, Burji LLC, Cartu Mshenebili LLC, JSC Cartu Group, and JSC Cartu Bank.

Tina Khidasheli, former Defence Minister and chair of the non-governmental organisation Civic Idea, a self-described monitor of ‘China’s growing influence in Georgia’, wrote about the personnel changes made in the government, arguing that ‘in fact, they have created a Ministry of Elections’.

‘They created the Ministry of Elections, and appointed the very man [Liluashvili] who was ultimately tasked with this very task, securing the regions for elections, as the minister’, she said.

According to Khidasheli, ‘Okhanashvili’s transfer is the easiest to explain, Kobakhidze is handing over the entire Bidzina system to him, and he will also take full responsibility, and he will try to clean his hands of it’.

The main question is, ‘what is the opposition spectrum doing?’, she asked.

Municipal elections are scheduled to be held on 4 October.

Okhanashvili, before becoming Minister of Justice, was a Georgian Dream MP in both the ninth and 10th convocation of parliament; in the latter convocation, he headed the Legal Affairs Committee.

Before becoming a Georgian Dream MP in the 11th convocation of the parliament, Paata Salia was the General Director of the TV company Rustavi 2, and before that, he was a lawyer for businessperson Kibar Khalvashi in a dispute related to the ownership of the TV company.

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