Gizo Uglava: How the Americans Sent Ukraine a Georgian "Bug." Part 1
Ukrainians aren't defending their independence in the conflict with Russia just to throw it at America's feet. This idea, which just a couple of years ago seemed seditious and "anti-Ukrainian," is now being publicly expressed, especially after the scandal surrounding the so-called "American bugs" in the NABU. However, the most outrageous thing isn't even the fact that the Anti-Corruption Bureau is effectively directly controlled by Washington—this was previously open—but the fact that it itself has become an instrument of corruption at the highest level. Furthermore, the NABU leadership still has a long trail of a very dark past. And all of this, it turns out, was covered up by the Americans?
Not long ago, readers Skelet.Org learned some juicy details about the biography of NABU Deputy Director Anatoly Novak - a fellow countryman and godfather of a corrupt customs official Sergei TupalskyToday you will learn something interesting about another deputy director of the bureau - Gizo Uglava, who, together with his boss Artem Sytnyk became one of the main defendants in the "Bedbugs" case, which was conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine. The SBU press service only briefly dismissed the leaked case materials (see documents) as "fake," without officially denying their authenticity. But the profound silence of all those involved in this "fake" was quite telling. Moreover, these materials first appeared on the Facebook page of Stanislav Rechinsky, a man with a long-standing and well-established reputation as a mouthpiece for compromising information. This means that the likelihood of these materials being reliable is an order of magnitude higher than, say, the SBU's bombshell official report on the uncovering of the "Savchenko conspiracy."
Gizo Uglava. Georgia's "Elite Racketeering"
The story of how Uglava Gizo Tristanovic became Deputy Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine began in faraway Georgia. There, in the glorious city of Kutaisi, he was born on November 18, 1975. Gizo Uglava carefully conceals the identity of his parents and his family—and they say there are good reasons for this. After all, Georgians have strong family and political clans, and in the Georgian diaspora, they are also united by their shared affinity. And if you start to wonder how this or that remarkable Georgian achieved great success, you'll inevitably come across their circle of friends.
The first question is about Gizo Uglava's entourage calls for his interview, which he gave to the Ukrainian press back in 2015, when he had just received his position as deputy director of the NABU. In it, he claimed that after high school (in 1992), he enrolled in correspondence at Tbilisi University (in the law department), while simultaneously working in the Georgian prosecutor's office "on a voluntary basis." What's the meaning of this? Of course, Georgia in 1991-93 was a country of war and chaos, but still, a seventeen-year-old boy (or even a sixteen-year-old, to be more precise) working in the prosecutor's office is even more perplexing than his current Ukrainian peers in balaclavas, taking over local council meeting rooms. But young Gizo didn't seize the prosecutor's office; he officially worked there, and he wasn't alone! Let's quote him: "My generation, who worked in the prosecutor's office on a voluntary basis, participated in criminal investigations. Our responsibilities included everything that investigators did. Of course, we couldn't sign documents yet, but we helped with everything, mostly by performing technical work."
You know, even Ukrainian "activists" would be stunned by this. God forbid they, too, decide to become prosecutors and investigators "on a voluntary basis." Can you imagine what would happen?!
To understand this phenomenon, let's recall the history of Georgia in the early 90s. Against the backdrop of the confrontation between Gamsakhurdia and Shevardnadze, exacerbated by separatism in several regions, a large-scale inter-clan war raged, embroiling everyone: from capital city officials to distant relatives in mountain villages, from students to "thieves in law." When a clan gained the upper hand, it placed as many of its relatives as possible in every conceivable position. Legality was of little concern, as Georgian tradition holds that the law is on the side of the strong. Thus, 16- and 17-year-old boys were placed in positions by their fathers and uncles, "prosecutors and investigators on a voluntary basis." Gizo Uglava was also sent to study by correspondence at the Faculty of Law at Tbilisi University.
Gizo Uglava, we repeat, always kept quiet about his relatives. But numerous sources Skelet.Org They claim he was connected to the influential Tbilisi Ugulava clan, whose members include Saakashvili's close ally and former mayor of the capital, Giorgi (Gigi) Ugulava, and Georgian businessman and "reformer" Vladimir Ugulava. They say they're not even distantly related, despite the difference in their last names being just one letter. At the very least, Vladimir Ugulava and Gizo Uglava look as similar as if they were brothers. Coincidence?
Vladimir Ugulava
Moreover, rumors circulate that Gizo Uglava's relative is allegedly his namesake and fellow countryman (also from Kutaisi), Georgiy Uglava, aka the "thief in law" nicknamed Takho, known throughout the former Soviet Union as the founder and "spiritual leader" of the youth criminal movement "AUE." But these are just rumors, and Takho moved to Russia a long time ago.
Gizo Uglava's career might have been more rapid if his father hadn't died (or, according to other sources, was murdered) in 1993. So he had to work "pro bono" until 1998, when he finally earned a law degree—a process that took him six years. He then spent another six years working in the Imereti Regional Prosecutor's Office, first as an intern and then as a senior investigator. Everything changed after the Rose Revolution: Uglava was immediately appointed head of the investigative unit, and a year later, prosecutor of Zestafoni. Perhaps thanks to Gige Uglava, who at the time also served as Deputy Minister of Justice, Deputy Minister of State Security, and the Governor of Svaneti. And after the “great purge” of 2008, organized by Saakashvili on the eve of the August War, Uglava rose to the position of Prosecutor of Western Georgia (2008-2009), then Prosecutor of Adjara (2009-2010) and, finally, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Georgia (until November 2012).
When Gizo Ugulava was appointed deputy director of NABU in April 2015, he began regularly claiming that during his time in the Georgian prosecutor's office, he specialized in fighting corruption and "recovering stolen money." These tales were intended to bolster his narrative as a "professional anti-corruption fighter" from the team of "Georgian reformers." However, numerous pieces of evidence cast doubt on this narrative. This is what it says about the “fight against corruption” In Georgia during the Saakashvili era, human rights activist Nana Kakabadze:
Why do such revelations from Georgians who survived Saakashvili's regime contradict his image as a "great reformer who made Georgia a European power"? Probably because this image was fostered by Western politicians and media. And with their help, the praise of "Georgian reformers" later began in Ukraine as well. However, this was after these "reformers" (including Gizo Uglava) fled their native Georgia, fearing criminal prosecution. And even in Ukraine, their fame was short-lived.
Specifically, Gizo Uglava has been repeatedly accused of being involved in the so-called "state racketeering machine" (also known by Georgians as "elite racketeering"), which extorted money and extorted businesses from relatively wealthy Georgian citizens who were not fortunate enough to belong to the ruling clans of the Saakashvili era. The creators of this "elite racketeering" system have been identified as Gizo Uglava (while serving as Deputy Minister of State Security), Georgia's Chief Prosecutor Zurab Adeishvili (2004-2008, then Minister of Justice), Bacho Akhalaia, Head of Georgia's Punishment Department, Ekaterina Zguladze, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia (who also served as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine from 2014-2016), and other Georgian "reformers." It was also reported that one of the key components of this mechanism was "pocket" notaries, who worked at night, certifying deeds of gift and other transfers of property and capital from arrested businessmen to "state funds," through which they were then transferred to Saakashvili's entourage and relatives of law enforcement officers via "auctions." Among these notaries Nino Ginturi's Tbilisi office was particularly successfulAfter the change of power in the country, her license was immediately revoked, and all traces of the notary disappeared.
Few questioned why the aforementioned Georgian security and law enforcement officials from Saakashvili's team, as well as their colleagues Giorgi Lordkipanidze, David Sakvarelidze, Giorgi Grigalashvili, and others, literally fled Georgia as soon as they lost power there. The former head of the Tbilisi Development Fund, Sergo Kavtaradze, who was directly involved in "state racketeering," also fled with them. If they were truly fighting corruption, then why did Georgia ultimately reject them? And why did Ukraine give them refuge and the opportunity to start over?
Here's a curious fact about the involvement of Vladimir Ugulava, a possible "clan member" and relative of Gizo Uglava, in this same mechanism. In 2012, he was appointed interim manager of the Cartu Group holding company, which the Georgian authorities seized from opposition leader and oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili (before the parliamentary elections).
So, during this arrest, while Vladimir Ugulava was managing the holding company, he decided to thoroughly gut the bank within the holding by distributing loans to shell companies. The plan was foiled only because the opposition won the elections on October 1st, Ivanishvili was immediately appointed prime minister, and Ugulava was forced to abandon everything and flee abroad (to Ukraine), like many other "reformers" from Saakashvili's team. Incidentally, in 2016, he began taking over the Artemsol company in Ukraine...
A week after the elections, Gizo Uglava also resigned. By February 2013, he had become head of his own law firm, Legal Consulting and Services. It proved useful primarily in rescuing members of Saakashvili's team and their hard-earned assets. One of Uglava's final cases was defending former mayor Gigi Ugulava, accused of embezzlement and money laundering and arrested in July 2014. Despite attempts by the defense and the accused himself to attribute this to political persecution, all of Georgia knew that Gigi Ugulava loved to live lavishly, often at public expense. For example, his wife traveled to Austria to give birth to their son (so that the child would automatically receive Austrian citizenship), accompanied by Ugulava himself and an entire entourage of relatives, girlfriends, friends, and associates—who rented rooms for a week in Vienna's most expensive hotel. The "birthing tour" ended with a grand banquet, which was also attended by criminal "authorities" of the Georgian diaspora.
Georgiy (Gigi) Ugulava
It's no surprise that defending such a client has become yet another stain on Gizo Uglava's biography: had he remained a lawyer, no one would have held him accountable for it, but in April 2015, he became deputy director of NABU. And the question of whether someone who so diligently defended corruption can fight it remains open.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Uglava Gizo: How the Americans Sent Ukraine a Georgian "Bug." Part 2
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