"It's evident from the result that Bidzina Ivanishvili either didn't want this [Anaklia Port] project or was afraid of Russian neighbor's wrath," - this is how he responded to BMGTV's TV program "Tsertili".
According to Giorgi Bachiashvili, Bidzina Ivanishvili was not conducting business in Georgia, but rather business racketeering, and as one example, he cited the case of Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze.
"When Mamuka Khazaradze wanted to build the Anaklia Port, and because this didn't align with Russia's interests, they fabricated cases against him and kept him in court for several years - this is direct racketeering. This was racketeering to prevent him from building the port.
Potentially there could have been interest from Ivanishvili's side, but direct investment from the co-investment fund was not being considered; After we studied the project, soon the incident began [the Khazaradze-Japaridze case]... I always had my opinion about this project - it wasn't very economically attractive, but the Anaklia project was a strategic project for the state and it had many other positive aspects, including in the context of strengthening the country's security... It would have been good if Americans were also involved in this project", - Bachiashvili said.
According to him, the person who was implementing this project got involved in court proceedings that were time-barred.
"When you initiate such a court case against businessmen who are implementing similar important projects, you probably don't want this project to succeed", - Bachiashvili said.
