13 March 2023, Monday, 10:05 1135

A Russian plane that was being repaired at Tamaz Somkhishvili's plant and that Prigozhin was photographed with is shot down near Bakhmut

Editor: Микола Поліщук

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Russian crime boss Tamaz Somkhishvili, who is trying to sue the Kyiv City State Administration for $100 million for the uncompleted reconstruction of Kharkiv Freedom Square, owns the Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing. Near Bakhmut, the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down an airplane that had been repaired at the Georgian Somkhishvili plant. Even earlier, the founder of the Private Military Company "Wagner", Yevgeny Prigozhin, who recruits Russian prisoners for the war in Ukraine, was photographed with this plane.

This was stated by political scientist and director of the Center for Civil Society Research Vitaliy Kulik on the Georgian TV channel "Mtavari channel".

"Recently, Tamaz Somkhisvili has become a much larger player in Russian-Georgian relations. His relative, Giorgi Tamazovich Somkhishvili, controls the Tbilisi Aviation Plant, which is used for repairing Russian aircraft involved in the war in Ukraine. The company regularly receives orders from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. These refurbished planes are then used to attack Ukrainian cities, including recently Bakhmut," the Ukrainian expert says.

According to him, Somkhishvili's plant repaired Russian combat aircraft in 2019 during the war in Syria and is still doing so during the Russian-Ukrainian war.

"When Prigozhin's Wagner PMC took an active part in the war in Syria in 2019, Tamaz Somkhishvili was also actively involved in the maintenance and refurbishment of Su-24s. These are exactly the planes that appeared in Bakhmut earlier this week. Prigozhin personally flew on one of them. He recorded a video in which he said: "The Su-24 has been well refurbished and is in good shape. We have already finished bombing Bakhmut. If you want, we will meet in the sky". The next day, this plane was shot down by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is currently under repair again and has been transported to a Russian base," Vitaliy Kulik continues.

The political scientist also recalls that the Russian criminal in law Shakro Molodiy, who has been working for Tamaz Somkhishvili for many years, personally urged Russian prisoners to join the Wagner PMC to fight in Ukraine.

"Shakro Molodiy personally urged to join the Wagner PMC, he is actually a "lookout" in the colonies for agitation regarding participation in the war with Ukraine. We all know that Somkhishvili has been working for Shakro Molodiy for many years. This was recently confirmed by journalists again. In the process of recruiting prisoners from Russian prisons to the front, Shakro Molodiy cooperates with Tamaz Somkhishvili and also refurbishes Russian combat aircraft," Vitaliy Kulik summarizes.

As a reminder, Tamaz Somkhishvili is a co-founder of Lukoil, known in the criminal world as Tamaz Tobolsky, who is close to the king of Russian crime, Shakro Molodiy. Somkhishvili is also closely linked to pro-Russian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose family members remain under Ukrainian sanctions since October 2022.