Right-wing businessman Levan Vasadze enters politics
Levan Vasadze, 51, has not announced his plans for this year’s municipal elections. Photo: 1TV.
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Ultranationalist businessman Levan Vasadze, who has actively participated in anti-LGBT campaigns in recent years, has announced his plans earlier today to enter politics.
Vasadze received an education in the US and Russia and spent his earlier years in the two countries.
He has been living in Georgia with his family since 2009.
Vasadze said that initially he will found a civic movement which will later change into a political party.
He said that entering politics was a ‘very hard decision’ for him. However, ‘political, economic, cultural, social and ideological crisis’ pushed him to do so.
The last drop was the recent signing of the EU-mediated document by Christian Danielsson by Georgian political parties which allowed the release of criminals and pointed at a decrease of state sovereignty,” Vasadze said.
The leader of the political party Citizens, MP Aleko Elisahsvili has stated that Vasadze ‘is a Russian spy, and I would be happy for such people to have little support in Georgia.’
The ruling Georgian Dream party has signed a EU-proposed agreement by mediator Christian Danielsson earlier today which concerns ‘ambitious electoral and judicial reform’ and offers amnesty for suspects and convicts of the June 19 protests in Tbilisi, including the currently imprisoned head of the United National Movement opposition party Nika Melia. The Georgian Dream party and the opposition failed to sign the same agreement at the end of March 2021, following the second arrival of Danielsson to help the parties come to an agreement.
Turmoil around the first Tbilisi Pride - a week-long event dedicated to the rights of LGBT individuals - continues as organisers decided yesterday to hold the events despite threats coming from nationalist groups. the organisers said earlier today that LGBT march will not be held on the central streets of Tbilisi.
Tbilisi Pride will be held despite threats of disruption, event organisers said in a statement released earlier today amid public tension. They say that “informal groups” pose threats to the LGBT events and the state is unable to ensure the rights of supporters and participants of Tbilisi Pride.
Businessman Levan Vasadze, who had earlier called for anti-LGBT activists to form ‘patrols’ to prevent events for Tbilisi Pride, says no such groups will be formed for now. The decision came after the statement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs earlier yesterday.
Right-wing businessman Levan Vasadze, who has recently founded political movement Unity, Essence, Hope, has urged the government to cancel Tbilisi Pride events between 1-5 July.
The head of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze says that the organisers of Tbilisi Pride should not have planned the events 'considering the current situation in the country and the context.’
Georgian right-wing politician and businessman Levan Vasadze, who entered politics earlier this year and founded the Unity, Essence, Hope political movement back in May 2021, says that he could be poisoned for his political views and his recent diagnoses, multiple myeloma, could be connected with radiation poisoning.
Russian businessman of Georgian origin Aleksandre Ebralidze was reportedly arrested yesterday for embezzlement in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported that Ebralidze’s arrest is connected to the loss of about three billion rubles in 2016 from Russia’s Constance Bank, formerly owned by Ebralidze.