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Acting Georgian Defense Minister Leaves Country, Calls 'Not To Believe Rumors'

October 22, 2012

by RFE/RL

Georgia's missing acting Defense Minister Dimitri Shashkin has announced that he decided to leave the country.

Shashkin said via his Facebook account on October 22 that he hoped to return to Georgia someday.

He said he left Georgia because his viewpoints do not coincide with those politicians who won the parliamentary elections on October 1.

Shashkin also called on his colleagues and friends "not to believe unbelievable stories" about him that may emerge soon.

A number of Georgia's top officials disappeared after billionaire-turned-politician Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream bloc defeated President Mikheil Saakashvili's ruling United National Movement party at the general elections.

A Defense Ministry spokeswoman said last week that Shashkin had left on a business trip to the United States.

With reporting by Interfax

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/georgia-acting-defense-minister-flees-country/24747000.html

Copyright (c) 2012. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.