Georgian PM Bakhtadze steps down, warning political divisions will benefit Russia

Georgian PM Bakhtadze steps down, warning political divisions will benefit Russia

Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze announced his resignation on Monday after little more than a year in the job and said the country must avoid political divisions that could play into Russia’s hands.

The ruling Georgian Dream party has nominated Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia for the post of prime minister, RIA news agency cited the party’s chairman as saying on Tuesday.

Bakhtadze’s resignation comes as the government’s popularity has slumped following the brutal dispersal of an anti-Kremlin protest in the capital last June. Parliamentary elections are due in October next year.

The prime minister said on Facebook he was stepping down because he had accomplished what he set out to do in the job.

“A strategic development framework has been created, implemented, and I have therefore decided to resign because I believe that I have fulfilled my mission at this stage,” Bakhtadze wrote.

“…we must always remember that the only one who will win from the polarisation of Georgian society will be an occupying country,” he said.

Georgia fought and lost a short war with Russia in 2008, prompting the countries to cut diplomatic ties. Russia went on to recognise the independence of two breakaway Georgian regions where it now has troops garrisoned.

Ties with Russia are therefore a politically divisive issue and a rally outside parliament this summer when a visiting Russian lawmaker addressed the chamber from the speaker’s chair, descended into violent clashes with police.

The opposition, which says the current pro-Western government is too soft on Moscow, accused police of using excessive force. The government said police were right to use force as protesters were trying to storm parliament.