Singer Lev Leshchenko, who is close to Russia’s political elite, is vacationing in Georgia, in a hotel owned by billionaire and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzin Ivanishvili. This statement was made tonight by the general director of the opposition TV channel “Mtavari” Nika Gvaramia.
According to Gvaramiya, the singer is received at the highest level, despite the fact that by law Leshchenko should not visit Georgia because of his performances with concerts in Abkhazia.
The opposition TV company has not yet managed to shoot footage that would confirm that Lev Leshchenko is on the Black Sea coast of Georgia. However, Mtavari claims, citing its sources, that Beke Odishari, a member of parliament from Mriya, and Lexo Tamazashvili, the brother of Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili’s wife, have been instructed to receive a guest from Moscow.
“Yesterday Lev Leshchenko was in Batumi, in the restaurant” Askaneli “, which was closed especially for him. Today Lev Leshchenko is in the Paragraph Hotel. He is received by hotel owner Bidzina Ivanishvili, as well as the brother of Prime Minister Lexo Tamazashvili’s wife and favorite [Tbilisi mayor] Kakha Kaladze in parliament, the majority member of the Krtsanisa-Mtatsmin district Beka Odishariya, “Gvaramiya told Aktseti.
“These people accept a man who sang in Abkhazian in Abkhazian, congratulating on independence … Release Mr. Leshchenko from the room, as long as you can keep him under lock and key, we will still be able to remove him,” Gvaramia was indignant.
The arrival of Russian politicians and show business representatives in Georgia has repeatedly caused protests. The last such case occurred on March 31, 2021, when the famous journalist Volodymyr Posner and several dozen of his guests arrived in Tbilisi to celebrate a birthday, despite the fact that in Georgia there were strict restrictions and restaurants were closed in the evenings.
Then up to three hundred activists staged a loud action under the windows of the hotel, where Posner and his guests stayed. The statement of a well-known journalist about Abkhazia was a cause for indignation: Posner said in an interview with the Georgian TV company Imedi in 2017 that “Georgia will never return Abkhazia.” Against the background of the protests on the morning of April 1, Posner and his companions left Tbilisi on the same charter flight on which they arrived in the country.
Commenting on the incident, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and Russian President Dmitry Peskov’s spokesman said protests over Posner’s visit to Georgia spoke of the country’s danger to Russians.
Source: newsgeorgia.ge