Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has dismissed speculation regarding his potential resignation, stating that he is asked this question every three months. The head of government also highlighted his cabinet’s accomplishments and its close coordination with the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili:
“I do not want to delve into details; I will say only one thing: after I took office as prime minister, as you know, there was a very clear directive from Bidzina Ivanishvili regarding corruption. It took me, together with the team and—I reiterate—under the leadership of Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a year and five months to resolve the issues associated with the governance system. It took a year and five months for me personally and the entire team to eradicate the accumulated problems.
I will not make any further comments on this matter. Everyone should mind their own business; we identified specific problems. It took me a year and five months to resolve fundamental problems in the governance system; the team did this, and there was an instruction from Bidzina Ivanishvili to that effect. Naturally, we adopted this as the general line and saw it through to the end. In a year and five months, we succeeded in completely purging the system of the problems that had been building up,” Kobakhidze stated.
When journalists asked why Kobakhidze had not scrutinized the government for corruption offenses while serving in parliament—an oversight body—during Irakli Garibashvili’s tenure as prime minister, he replied that he had different resources at his disposal back then.
“Of course, you have one set of resources in parliament, and entirely different ones when you directly manage the system. Even after taking office as head of government, it took me and the team a year and five months, following Bidzina Ivanishvili’s instructions, to rid the system completely of fundamental problems,” Kobakhidze said.
The prime minister added that he expects to be asked again in three months whether he plans to resign. Regarding rumors that the post of prime minister might be offered to Zurab Pataradze, Kobakhidze dismissed them as mere “chortaoba” (ჩორტაობა—scheming, provocation, mischief-making), adding that whoever posed the question was trying to “muddy the waters.”
In response to a journalist’s remark about the impropriety of using such Russian loanwords, the prime minister said it was not a technical term, but slang.
