The President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, refused to revoke the Georgian citizenship of former Prosecutor General Otar Partskhaladze, who came under US sanctions on charges of ties to the FSB.
“European Truth” writes about this in a statement issued by the administration of the President of Georgia.
“Otar Partskhaladze was found guilty of espionage, an investigation has been launched against him. Based on the interests of the state, the President of Georgia does not consider it expedient to terminate his Georgian citizenship at this stage,” the statement reads.
Zurabishvili believes that if Partskhaladze must be punished, then he should be punished precisely as a citizen of Georgia, the statement added.
This week, the Ministry of Justice of Georgia submitted documents to the president for his signature deprive Partskhaladze of his citizenship Georgia. This happened after it became known that he had acquired Russian citizenship and had not completed the necessary procedures to preserve Georgian citizenship.
The USA introduced sanctions against Partskhaladze on September 14, his name is included in the list of sanctioned persons Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury.
It was not specified why Partskhaladze fell under American sanctions. At the same time, in September 2022, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption of Ukraine included him in the list of persons connected with the Georgian political elite.
NAZK claims that Partskhaladze “is one of the participants in the oligarchic rule and takeover of the Georgian state by Bidzina Ivanishvili”, who lobbies the interests of one of the richest people in Russia – Vladimir Yevtushenkov – in matters of circumventing sanctions.
Partskhaladze named the US sanctions against him are “the crown of a ten-year discredit campaign” and believes that they were “inspired by specific people”.
Partskhaladze was the Prosecutor General of Georgia from November to December 2011. His appointment was one of the first personnel decisions of the government formed by the Ivanishvili-related Georgian Dream party.
