Imedi TV owner: the same forces attacking TV company today are the ones who stormed TV station with weapons when they were in power

Irakli Rukhadze, the owner of Imedi TV, on Friday said that the same forces attacking the television company today were the ones who stormed the TV station with weapons when they were in power.

Rukhadze was commenting on the media crackdown of November 7, 2007, and the current stance of radicals toward Imedi TV.

“Before anything happens, they first have to crush us. That is exactly what they are doing. The methods have changed because they are no longer in power. When they were in power, they entered with weapons. The same actors are involved. There are probably many parties, but fundamentally it is the United National Movement and their offshoots. They remain the main opposition. It’s the same people”, Rukhadze said.

He specifically mentioned Nika Gvaramia, the former prosecutor and now the opposition leader, saying that “Nika Gvaramia was the prosecutor running to the US Embassy claiming, ‘Irakli Rukhadze must be arrested’. John Tefft [former US Ambassador to Georgia] directly writes that - you can check Wikileaks - they didn’t want it to remain independent. They wanted to arrest me. Just because he [Nika Gvaramia] now has a different hair color and glasses doesn’t mean he isn’t the same person who was closing Imedi and targeting us”.

Today marks 18 years since the events of November 7, 2007. On that day, following the dispersal of peaceful demonstrations at several locations in Tbilisi, the Government of then-President Mikheil Saakashvili stormed the offices of TV company Imedi.

Special forces raided the station, vandalized equipment, and took the channel off the air. Armed and masked officers broke through metal barricades after surrounding the building’s perimeter, entered the premises, forced employees to the ground, and physically assaulted several staff members, some of whom were seriously injured