TBILISI, August 27 – Mamuka Mdinaradze, one of Georgian Dream’s most prominent figures, abruptly resigned as regional development minister on Thursday.
Mdinaradze told a special briefing that he also was leaving politics after a decade in public life; a decision that was his own and that he had been considering it for several weeks. He said Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili had initially tried to persuade him to stay, but eventually accepted his decision.
Kobakhidze later backed that account, saying he and Ivanishvili had discussed the matter with Mdinaradze and tried to change his mind. The prime minister said Mdinaradze had cited the psychological stress of political life as a reason for leaving.
Mdinaradze said he may try his hand at business and wants to spend more time with his family. He left open a narrow possibility of returning to politics if Georgian Dream badly needed him in the future.
The timing immediately drew attention because Mdinaradze has been at the center of a bitter dispute with jailed former prime minister Irakli Garibashvili.
Garibashvili recently alleged in letters from prison that Mdinaradze had been involved in efforts to pressure him into admitting another corruption offense in order to make sure he never returned to politics. Mdinaradze flatly rejected that account on Thursday, saying he had never sent Garibashvili a letter, either personally or through an intermediary.
He suggested Garibashvili may have singled him out because of his role in anti-corruption investigations while he headed the State Security Service, but said he was not certain that was the explanation. He insisted his resignation had nothing to do with Garibashvili’s prison letters.
Kobakhidze also dismissed opposition attempts to link the two developments, saying there was no basis for such speculation.
But Mdinaradze’s departure triggered a wave of claims from opposition politicians that deeper changes could be coming inside Georgian Dream.
Several opposition figures predicted Kobakhidze could be next to go. Salome Samadashvili of Lelo-Strong Georgia described Mdinaradze’s departure as the beginning rather than the end of a wider process, while analyst Gia Khukhashvili argued that the resignation further isolated the prime minister. Those claims were political assessments and were not backed by evidence of an imminent change in government.
