Tbilisi: farewell ceremony with Bendukidze ends with minute of silence

The farewell ceremony with Kakha Bendukidze, the former Georgian Minister of Economy, is over in Tbilisi; and the funeral procession has departed to the Kukia Cemetery. At the end of the ceremony a letter of Georgian ex-President Mikhail Saakashvili was read out, saying that "the country is again on the brink of ruining."

The funeral ceremony was held in the building that houses the Tbilisi Free University, founded by Bendukidze, and the Agrarian University, which was reorganized by him. Over two thousand people came to say farewell to Bendukidze.

During the ceremony, Vasily Tsybenko, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Georgia, laid a wreath with the national flag of Ukraine to the coffin with the body of Bendukidze.

According to Alexander Danilyuk, the Plenipotentiary of the President of Ukraine, today Ukraine "is implementing the reforms inspired by Bendukidze."

In the course of the ceremony, Richard Norland, US Ambassador to Georgia, expressed his condolences to relatives of Kakha Bendukidze.

Bendukidze was the author of key economic reforms in Georgia in the time of Mikhail Saakashvili. In 2004-2009, he worked in the government; and then he left the state service and founded the Free University.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.