Georgia journalist targeted for assassination attempt

Text by: Régis Genté Follow

Opposition television star presenter Mtavari, Guiorgui Gabounia, was reportedly the subject of a plot to assassinate him. A Russian citizen from the North Caucasus was arrested in Georgia on June 15, 2020. According to the station's director, he was part of a team responsible for organizing a murder sponsored by the head of the Russian Republic of Chechnya. , Ramzan Kadyrov, very close to Vladimir Putin.

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From our Caucasian correspondent,

There are good reasons to believe that this plot has been proven. Vasambeg Bokov, 38, from the Russian North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, was arrested on June 15. Even the President of Georgia, Salomé Zourabichvili, and the Prime Minister, Guiorgui Gakharia, confirmed that a serious crime was in preparation.

Despite the fierce battle between the Georgian authorities and the opposition Mtavari chain, neither Ms. Zourabichvili nor Mr. Gakharia denied the words of the director of the chain, who also accused him of the Chechen chief of having sponsored the murder.

What avenge the Russian president for the insults , very raw, that the star presenter of the channel made at his address live on the air a year ago, while Georgia and Russia were entering a new crisis in their relationships.

Sponsored murders from Russia or Chechnya

In recent months, several countries have accused Russia or the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov of having ordered murders of Chechens in Europe. Difficult to say if the assassination of Guiorgui Gabounia is part of this line. The investigation is ongoing and the Georgian authorities are very cautious as they pursue a policy of normalizing relations with Moscow.

But one cannot help making the connection with other murders or attempted murders committed in Europe lately. Like the assassination in a Berlin park, last August 23, of Zelimkhan Khangochvili, who had fought against Russia during the war of independence in Chechnya then in the Georgian forces in particular during the Russo-Georgian war of the summer 2008. The surveys clearly point to the Russian special services.

" Personal enemy "

We also think of the strange murder of a Chechen blogger in Lille , in the north of France, at the start of the year. Irman Aliev was a critical figure in the dictatorial regime of Ramzan Kadyrov.

In the case of Guiorgui Gabounia in Georgia, the evidence remains to be established but one thing is certain: Ramzan Kadyrov wrote that he remained his "  personal enemy  ". The Kadyrov-Putin relationship is actually complex, notably because the Russian security services hate the Chechen leader, which leads him to seek more protection from the Russian president.

In the numerous murders linked to Chechnya, or involving Chechens, this dimension is often found. As in the assassination on October 7, 2006 of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a critic both of Moscow's policy and that of President Kadyrov, who was killed on the birthday of Vladimir Putin, gift, which we do not know if it was intended to please or harm him.

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• Georgia
• Chechnya
• Vladimir Poutine
• Crime
• Ramzan Kadyrov

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