Leakage of records of Ivanishvili's phone conversations sparks scandal in Georgia

After releasing of records of two phone conversations of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the ruling "Georgian Dream-Democratic Movement" Party, with the Russian billionaire, Vladimir Evtushenkov, a scandal broke out in Georgia. In the talks, they discussed the conclusion of some kind of a deal.

The records of the two Ivanishvili-Evtushenkov hone conversations dated March 10 and 12 were made public on April 25. Despite the fact that the authenticity thereof was not confirmed, in a talk with Georgian media, Evtushenkov confirmed the authenticity of the records.

In the phone talks with Ivanishvili, Evtushenkov discussed an "idea with grains", announced his envoy's visit to Tbilisi, and asked Ivanishvili to meet him so that the envoy could personally inform about Evtushenkov's intentions.

After the phone records were made public, David Arakhamiya, an MP of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) has openly called Bidzina Ivanishvili a "pro-Russian businessman-politician" who hides the fact that he is being guided from the Kremlin.

In these phone talks, oppositional MPs of the Georgian Parliament saw a possibility of bypassing the anti-Russian sanctions. David Usupashvili, the chairman of the "Lelo" oppositional faction, believes that instructions of this kind were given during the phone talks.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 27, 2022 at 06:35 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.