Georgian Defence Minister commented on the BBC investigation that alleged links of David Kezerashvili with a fraud scheme in Europe by saying the “robbery” was a continuation of the “organised robbery of the [Georgian] state” by the former United National Movement Government.

“The former Government robbed the state with more than 5 million. To date, we have not been able to correct the financial reporting of the agency, which is Kezerashvili’s responsibility, I cannot call this budget theft, it is organized robbery.

I repeat, hundreds of millions are in receivable accounts, some are due to their incompetence, and there may be an additional case that is again due to robbery. We are trying to find documents on cases, on purchases that simply do not exist, and write them off from receivable accounts.

However, it is not ruled out that there is organized crime among them. I can’t call it anything else. This is not a crime committed by one person and it is not theft, it is robbery of the state by an organized group, which in that case was the entire government”, - said Juansher Burchuladze.