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Sitting in his apartment in uptown Tbilisi, with a small white lapdog, Givi Targamadze cuts a gentle figure among Georgian intelligence circles.
A key leader of the country’s Rose Revolution in 2003, the former Defence and Security Committee Chairman was nevertheless present for other pro-democracy uprisings in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, and in 2012 was accused of plotting to overthrow Russian President Vladimir Putin – a charge he denies. In 2016, he also survived an attempt on his life when his car was bombed just days ahead of hotly contested parliamentary elections won by the current ruling party, Georgian Dream.
Georgia’s government has in recent months launched a mounting violent crackdown against opponents of a draconian new law on ‘foreign influence’ that was passed on 28 May. Critics say the distinctly Russian-style package of restrictions targeted at independent media and civil society have paved the way for the South Caucasian country’s anti-Western government to openly pursue closer ties with the Kremlin, and torching the EU-accession hopes of more than 90% of Georgians.
The US has already announced travel bans for “a few dozen” as-yet-unnamed state officials for “derailing Georgia’s European future” contrary to “the Georgian constitution and the wishes of its people,” with a package of concrete financial sanctions expected to follow.
Georgian Officials Accused of ‘Whitewashing’ State Violence With Trip to London
The UK Government is being urged to take action against Georgia as the US on Thursday announced sanctions against a “few dozen” Georgian Dream officials
Since massive protests against the ‘Russian Law’ first broke out almost two months ago, dozens of opposition figures have been beaten and hospitalised at rallies and outside their homes, with hundreds more receiving menacing anonymous phone calls, and even death threats, on a near-daily basis. Amid this ongoing campaign of state terror, there’s one man that concerns Targamadze more than almost anyone else.
“Zviad Kharazishvili has been a key figure in these violent endeavours for quite some time. He’s the guy who handles the excesses, he has a green light to go beyond, to bypass any laws,” Targamadze claims.
He’s emotionless, unblinking, a special kind of animal. When financial sanctions finally drop, ‘Khareba’ needs to be one of the first people targeted
Givi Targamadze on Zviad Kharazishvili
Over the past few weeks, Byline Times has spoken to several of Kharazishvili’s former colleagues to piece together a profile of the man who has all but publicly admitted responsibility for the scourge of violence presently unfolding in Georgia. Accosted outside parliament over his role in the attacks, Kharazishvili recently told journalists he has a “list of targets” his team are gradually working through.
“A lot worse is coming to Khabeishvili,” he added, in reference to opposition United National Movement party chair Levan Khabeishvili, who last week resigned citing the lingering effects of the beating he endured at the end of April. Neither Zviad Kharazishvili nor the Georgian Ministry of the Interior, where Kharazishvili currently serves as Director of the Department of Special Tasks, responded to email requests for comment.
Who is Zviad Kharazishvili
Born 20 March 1975, in Kashuri, central Georgia, Kharazishvili got his start working as a member of the State Protection Service (SPS) under the post-Soviet government of President Eduard Shevardnadze in the mid-1990s.
As the country slowly worked its way out of the civil and economic turmoil that had followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, guarding government officials and buildings was not well paid. So, Kharazishvili is understood to have set up a side business selling fuel with fellow SPS official Vakhtang Gomelauri – a relationship that would appear to have served him well in the years to come.
How the Georgian ‘Foreign Agents Bill’ May Cost it Everything its People Have Ever Dreamed Of – And Benefit No One But Russia
Georgian Dream’s ‘Russian-style’ law has prompted strong statements of concern from the UK, US and EU with critics saying it is an attempt to muzzle the media and NGOs – it may also end Georgia’s hopes of joining the EU