From newspapers of that time
The second anti-corruption crusade of Shevardnadze
The first took place in the 70's
[...] Having come back to Georgia in March, 1992, Shevardnadze at first didn’t even think about fighting with corruption. This is not surprising, because at that time the power in Georgia belonged to the state-structured mafia. Two «godfathers» — Jaba Ioseliani and Tengiz Kitovani, who (ironically) had invited Shevardnadze to come back to Georgia, would immediately send him away, if they noticed that the head of the state did not accept the «rules of the game» offered to him.
[...] Within five years of his «second reign» much has changed in Georgia. Both of the «godfathers» were imprisoned. Almost all formal and informal levers of power came back to Shevardnadze’s hands. And as corruption prevents reforms, which in the context of the decay of the Command and Administration System have become the main condition and source to maintain the president’s popularity, Shevardnadze decided to put again to fire and sword the whole structure of executive power.
Among arrested important figures (apart from the above-mentioned Ioseliani and Kitovani) there was the former Head of the Railway Transport Department Remi Vashakidze, whose daily income (according to Georgian press) was 100 thousand USD.
GEORGI Ú-DVALI
Newspaper “Commersant”
No. 13 (1195) from 18.02.1997
Full text of the article
