President’s Uncle Counselor at the Foreign Ministry

Vakhtang Maisuradze, tribuna.ge

Temur Alasania, uncle of the Georgia’s President, Mikheil Saakashvili, will work as a counselor at the Foreign Ministry of Georgia. Alasania spoke about it in his interview with the WEEKEND edition of the newspaper “24 Hours.”

“I retired after my 38th year of work in international relations. But I continue activities as a counselor. At the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs I will be a counselor and also fulfill other necessary tasks,” said Temur Alasania.

Alasania said he worked for the UN for 24 years and was in charge of disarmament issues. “I headed the department for disarmament and peace issues. It united 16 committees and commissions. 1/3 of them worked on disarmament issues, 1/3 - on peace-building, post-conflict peace and state building issues throughout the world.”

Temur Alasania is proud of his three-year employment as secretary general of the UN Special Conference and during his time in office the “Document on Child Protection” was created.

The journalist asked: “Since it is your first interview with the Georgian media, we would like to ask you about the legends about your influences in various fields… how often do you meet up with the President?”  

Alasania answered: “I see him as often as he can find time to talk with me. I see more of my sister and mother. The president is very busy. As for my influence… there is one huge problem in Georgia – people cannot believe that a person could achieve anything alone and become a leader…

People rather believe that he was supported by either his uncle, or mother-in-law or a group of allies. Why? I cannot understand where similar comparative theories come from,” Alasania asked and added that his argues only about wine with the president– “Which wine is better – Georgian or Italian?”

Georgian media does not know many details about Temur Alasania’s background. According to the information spread by several media outlets, Alasania owns some business companies in Georgia; however, he did not speak about it in his interview with the WEEKEND.

According to the TV Company Maestro’s program Anatomy, in 2005 the Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia announced competition for the Company “Madneuli” and its subsidiary company “Kvartsiti.”

The Russian-British Company Stanton Equity and Invest Group won the competition and obtained 97.25% of the stock in the gold deposits. Georgian MP and businessman Koba Nakopia and Temur Alasania are associated with the name of the winning company.

The Stanton Equity is owned by Russian Company “Geopromining” whose director is former minister of energy of Russia and Member of the Russian Duma Sergey Generalov. According to Forbes magazine, Generalov is among the one hundred richest people of the world with his 400 Million USD.

In September of 2007, the former defense minister of Georgia, Irakli Okruashvili said Alasania was a KGB officer and represented Russia in the UN. In 2008 the Russian newspaper “Pravda” also wrote about Alasania’s KGB activities though the WEEKEND did not ask Alasania about these allegations.

Temur Alasania’s name is linked with obscure death of the late prime-minister of Georgia Zurab Zhvania. In 2005 “Global Research” wrote about Zurab Zhvania’s death and said one of the motives for “Zhvania’s murder” was competition about the construction of the terminal at the Tbilisi International Airport. Namely, Zurab Zhvnia was against the Turkish company, Çelebi Holding, which won the competition and was lobbied by Temur Alasania. Finally the competition results were annulled and later again the Turkish company, TAV Urban, obtained the right to construct the new terminal in the airport. A journalist of the Global Research assumed one of the motives of “Zhvania’s murder” was the failed competition.

The same Global Research wrote that, “Alasania, who does not occupy any official positions, often attends sessions of the Georgian National Security Council and no decisions can be made without his content.”

The president’s uncle is also connected with illegal weapon trafficking. American investigative journalist Jeffrey Silverman, who works on illegal weapon trafficking, worked to prove cooperation between ethnic Tajik weapon-trafficker Victor Bout and Temur Alasania.

Silverman wrote that Bouts actively cooperates with Temur Alasania and the latter helped his alley obtain permission to carry out his weapon-trafficking via Georgia.

Silverman got hold of information which claimed that weapons were exported to Africa and Asia via Georgia. For example, in 2009 Batumi registered a II-76plane transporting 40 tones of military armament was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.

Besides that, similar cases were unveiled in the Congo in 2007, in the Philippines in 2009 and in Azerbaijan in 2010 when Baku detained representatives of radical religious groups who were transporting a particularly large amount of weapons via Georgia, Silverman claimed. 

Temur Alasania has never commented on the abovementioned accusations. In his interview with the WEEKEND he said it was first chance for a Georgian media outlet to interview him.

The WEEKEND did not inquire about the abovementioned circumstances during the interview.