The government of Georgia is dissolved and its most popular pro-western politician went from the government.
The decision of the Prime Minister of Georgia to dismiss the Minister of Defense Irakli Alasania made the coalition "Georgian Dream", that contains six parties, fragile which rules country from 2012 after winning over the "United National Movement" of Mikheil Saakshvili in the Parliamentarian elections, reads the article and author is Cory Welt, the collaborator of US Washington University.
GHN offers extract from the article:
"Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili's decision to sack the country's minister of defense, Irakli Alasania, has rattled the fragile Georgian Dream political coalition of six parties that has governed since its October 2012 upset victory over the United National Movement (UNM), the party of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Over the last two years, the Georgian Dream has cultivated the popular image of a democratic and socially responsive successor to Saakashvili's ground-breaking but heavy-handed regime, which catered to the West but failed to combat poverty and unemployment. But the Georgian Dream coalition's benevolent image is now under threat.
The infighting within Georgian Dream should not come as a surprise. The coalition has been an alliance of convenience since it was formed in 2011, united on the basis of a desire to oust the UNM, which had worn out its welcome after nine years of rule.
Forty-year-old Alasania was a leading coalition figure who had been appointed minister of defense by Garibashvili's predecessor, oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili. Alasania's Free Democrats party and the Republicans, a second coalition party led by parliamentary chairman David Usupashvili, have been the coalition's reformist vanguard. Its eponymous party, the Georgian Dream, is the brainchild of Ivanishvili, who made it his mission to rid the country of Saakashvili. After a year as prime minister, however, he preferred to operate behind the scenes, appointing his former employee and minister of internal affairs, 32-year-old Garibashvili, to serve as prime minister in his stead. While still adhering to a pro-Western course that is popular in Georgia, the Georgian Dream is more cautious in its dealings with Russia and caters to a more conservative and nationalist constituency.
The firing was precipitated by Alasania's vocal criticism of the arrest of 10 Defense Ministry officials (and one former official) in the span of a week in late October and early November. The prosecutor's office ordered their arrest on charges related to an alleged case of procurement corruption and, curiously, health and sanitary negligence leading to the food poisoning of hundreds of soldiers. Alasania insisted that the charges were politically motivated, calling them a "deliberate attack against the Defense Ministry." Garibashvili called Alasania's words "completely irresponsible" and said the minister was inappropriately politicizing the issue. Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze, who happens to be Alasania's sister-in-law, resigned in protest, as did the state minister on European and Euro-Atlantic integration, Alex Petriashvili, who comes from Alasania's party.
Many foreign observers have been quick to attribute the attack against the Ministry of Defense to the alleged "pro-Russian" leanings of Georgian Dream, said to be susceptible to Kremlin pressure and enticement. Alasania himself threw down the gauntlet by calling the arrests "an attack on Georgia's Euro-Atlantic choice," an accusation that appeared to especially rile Garibashvili, who is an open supporter of Georgia's association agreement with the European Union.
The latest developments are indeed worrisome, if less for their putative geopolitical motivations than for the doubts they raise about the government's commitment to depoliticize state institutions and adhere to the rule of law -- the same problems that led the Georgian Dream to victory over the UNM. A failure to reform the state risks jeopardizing Georgia's Euro-Atlantic leanings far more than Georgian Dream's efforts to normalize relations with Russia. But keeping Georgian reforms on track could require a change in government, which means either a politically improbable alliance of Georgian Dream reformists with their unpopular UNM rivals, or a gamble on snap parliamentary elections that could return the reformists to power with a mandate all their own.
While details of the cases that led to Alasania's sacking are unknown, the possibility of improprieties in procurement and dining services in the defense ministry is, at least, greater than zero. Georgia, like other countries in its neighborhood, battles a legacy of corruption and clientelism. Alasania has a reputation for honesty and integrity, but violations could still happen under his watch. That said, the affair is suspicious. It strains credulity that of all the ministries in Georgia, the Defense Ministry, which has prided itself on promoting transparency and good governance, is the one that turned out to be a hotbed of corruption and poor administration.