Badri Japaridze of Lelo responds to PM Gharibashvili and accuses him of lying about Anaklia Port
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Badri Japaridze, the leader of the Lelo party, responded to the statement made by the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili who accused Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze of 'robbing' the country and said that behind the construction of the port, their intention was 'the idea of enrichment and robbery.'
"Actually, 75 million dollars were invested in Anaklia, which is confirmed by the international audience, and this figure and this documentation are in the Ministry of Economy. The Prime Minister should have bothered and requested the real investment amount from the Ministry of Economy, which has been confirmed by a highly reputable auditing company.
It is a lie that he told today as if the investment was 25 million and not 75. The second big lie he told was that Khazaradze and Japaridze had invested 3 million, but in reality, it was 40 million dollars invested, which is also confirmed by the documents which have been submitted to the Ministry of Economy for several years and are stored there," Japaridze said.
According to Japaridze, three years ago, the government confiscated 75 million dollars from an investor.
The leader of Lelo noted that the legal prosecution of him and Mamuka Khazaradze has been going on for the fourth year already. According to him, this is happening precisely in order to damage their reputation, in order to stop the Anaklia project at the right time, and in Japaridze's opinion, all of this has caused great harm to the country.
"What stood out from Gharibashvili's speech today was another lie that he told, that as if they were asking for a guarantee from the state at the time, the consortium was asking for a guarantee, but did not offer anything in return. In fact, the truth is that we agreed with the EU commissioner that the EU would provide a 50 million Euro guarantee for the Anaklia project.
"We hear from Gharibashvili that he has decided that now the state will invest in the project in Anaklia, i.e. it will invest five times more in Anaklia, at the time when he refused the 50 million guarantee, he refused the proposal of the European Union," said the Lelo leader.
According to Japaridze, under the conditions of the Georgian Dream, the Anaklia deep water port project will not be implemented:
"The investment he's talking about is about $200 to $250 million, which is not in the budget. Therefore, this is another lie. Therefore, of course, under the conditions of the Georgian Dream, the Anaklia deep water port project will not be implemented," Japaridze said.
