Georgian Parliament Speaker says US-sanctioned former Prosecutor General has had “no connection” to Gov’t for 10 years

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said Otar Partskhaladze - the former Prosecutor General of the country who was recently sanctioned by the United States Department of State for “influencing Georgian society and politics for the benefit of Russia” - had held “no connection” with state structures “for the last 10 years”.

Papuashvili was commenting after the State Department on Thursday announced Partskhaladze was being designated with the status based on a section for operating or having operated in the management consulting sector of the Russian Federation economy.

The Georgian Parliament official said the former Prosecutor General was being “sanctioned as a private entity” and noted he was “the first Georgian citizen who was included in this type of sanctions, which are related to Russia”.

Relevant agencies will investigate this matter and the public will have information about it”, Papuashvili said.

The State Department said Aleksandr Onishchenko, an officer of Russia’s security agency FSB who has also been sanctioned along with the Georgian former official, had “likely assisted his associate Partskhaladze in obtaining a Russian passport and possibly Russian citizenship”. The US state body added the former Georgian Prosecutor General had “fully taken on a Russian identity and routinely travels to Russia”. 

Onishchenko and the FSB have leveraged Partskhaladze to influence Georgian society and politics for the benefit of Russia.  Partskhaladze has reportedly personally profited from his FSB connection”, said the Department.

State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller on Friday said “no sanction” imposed by the United States on an individual could change its relations with Georgia and the “strategic partnership” established between the two states over the last 30 years that was aimed for Georgia’s “full integration into the Euro-Atlantic family”.