"The ongoing processesaround Rustavi 2 will have negative impact on Georgia and its international image. Moreover, given that the country is approaching parliamentary elections," - says a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, Caucasus expert Thomas de Waal.

His ideas on this subject were published on jam-news.net.

"When the court makes a decision on such a difficult case, as the management change at night, is undoubtedly a" telephone justice "and the impression is quite alarming," - said the expert.

According to de Waal, there is Ivanishvili`s hand behin a number of issues, such as Rustavi 2 case actions against Saakashvili and his party against the actions.
"It seems that he is making decisions behind the scenes, which creates a lot of problems. Not because he is fully in control of everything, but because the Prime Minister is afraid to make decisions independently. In fact, there very few people in the government who take responsible decisions independently. So, we"ve got a government that tries to avoid doing thire job even in such an important area as the economic sphere ", - said the expert.

De Waal says that in recent years, Georgia made some progress in the direction of the rule of law for ordinary citizens. However, in his opinion, there are too many signs that there is "politicized justice " in regard with Mikheil Saakashvili and his party members, which looks like an attempt to crush the opposition party, "- said the expert.

"The country needs economic and political development. The country should think about its future. However, the Georgian Dream government is "stuck in the past," still fighting against with Saakashvili, as in 2012," - said Tom de Waal in an interview with JAMnews.

According to him, Georgia is known for pluralistic media in the region, and this achievement is likely to be compromised: "I"m not saying that the level of journalism has always been high, but it is the diversity of political opinion. If new owners of Rustavi 2 change the editorial policy, it will create a risk that one of the parties would be dominant in the media environment as it was in 2007. There will be no TV space for the main opposition party , several members of which are in jail, "- believes the expert.