Nothing particularly exciting usually happens in the offices of a company that produces water from moisture in the air (yes, there is such a thing) in Petah Tikva and sells its devices to a hundred countries. That is if we put aside the crazy technology that – in the words of its leader – aspires to "prevent world wars."
The owner, Michael Mirilashvili, can be defined as a capitalist, philanthropist, billionaire, or oligarch. In his free time, he also pays for the legendary tennis player Novak Djokovic to travel to Israel. As we start the interview, he apologizes, turns on the huge television in his office, and explains in broken Hebrew: "I must follow this." An international tennis tournament will be held in Tel Aviv this coming November. Mirilashvili is the president of the tournament and even initiated the event in 2022. Novak Djokovic won first place.
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Sixty-three-year-old Mirilashvili immigrated to Israel in 2009 from Russia – but he only made headlines in Israel in 2023 as the father of Yitzchak Mirilashvili, owner of Channel 14 News, whose ratings (and what is said on it) disturb the media swamp and the current protests, and small protests are held from time to time around his son's house.
Mirilashvili Sr. is considered to be the one pulling the strings of the family empire, and he claims that the protest leaders also marked him as responsible for what is happening on the channel. The attacks against him in recent weeks included also a series of accusations and tweet attacks on Twitter – among others, due to the fact that he is working to establish a Russian-style dictatorship in Israel through the channel's broadcasts.
This is one of the reasons he has chosen to be interviewed for the first time and to explain the media storm around him from his perspective, as well as to dispel a little of the smokescreen and rumors surrounding his connections with Russian President Putin, the late commander of the Wagner Force Yevgeny Prigozhin and to explain why he spent eight years in a Russian prison before immigrating to Israel.
"Crossing Red Lines and Lying"
"It's disturbing and unpleasant. It makes me sad when Israelis behave this way; I didn't expect it. Especially those who talk about democracy and freedom of speech. These are the ones who are attacking me. They are crossing red lines and lying. They're not ashamed of it," says Mirilashvili, through an interpreter participating in the interview on behalf of the newspaper.
"I have to respond to the accusations against me. They should not think that we can just go on one without a response from me. I can defend myself through my lawyers Shlomi Weinberg and Arkadiy Eligulashvili. Thank God, I've been through a lot in my life and I feel that I have to defend my good reputation from endless talk and limitless people. Although I am not directly connected to Channel 14, my son is the one who founded the channel, and not only do I not have any influence on anything, but I also don't even know where they are located. I don't know the staff members or the journalists. I am very proud of my son. He is a humble and honest person. He prefers to study Torah and in his spare time, he does his own business. I am sure that he does not influence the politics of the news desk."
Mirilashvili looked electrically charged as if he had been waiting for a long time for the chance to respond. He speaks fast, excluding regular breaks for translation. He claims, for example, that "leaders of the protest movement thought I had such a great influence, that they came to me for negotiations on the structure of the government. That's how confident they were of my power on the political level."
Q: Who were these people?
"I can't say. One of them, whom I won't name, said to me: 'Listen, let's make some peace deal – you only have to replace two of these crazy people, and we stop this protest. I can (snaps finger) stop the protest.' I said to them: 'Is this a democracy? Can you replace elected public officials just like that? Who am I to make such a decision?' First of all, because I can't, and even if I could, I wouldn't get involved at such a level of politics. I told them: 'You claim that we are turning this country into a dictatorship, but what you are proposing is the real dictatorship.
"I respect these people who want peace in the country, but they need to understand one thing: I am not the cause here. If they think they can influence and change people's choices, they are wrong. If they think the same about me, they are wrong. I cannot intervene in the people's choice. It's not fair."
Q: In the end, it comes back to the influence of Channel 14, which threatens the old channels. Did they try to ask you to intervene in what was going on there?
"They claim that what is going on in the channel is wrong and that there are a lot of lies going on there. I argued back that they are unable to accept something in the State of Israel that does not correspond to their beliefs, and that is why they are attacking the channel. They said to me: 'Come watch Channel 14 with me and I will prove it to you." They turned on the channel and discovered that nothing was happening that needed to be fixed, or that there was truth in their claims. I said and I say again: I do not have any influence on the channel, but if I see that they are lying - I will tell my son.
"I asked the people who came to me and talked to me about it to send me photos of what was wrong. Weeks have passed and they have only sent me things that are not connected to the channel. There is a middleman between us, and I told him: 'I am waiting. Give me even one proof that they are lying on the channel, or behaving not nicely."
Q: For example, the call to release the murderer of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
"He was immediately fired and was not invited to come back. This was not a journalist working for the channel, but a lawyer. There was an official statement, and it was dealt with immediately. If I had seen something that was wrong, I would have spoken to my son, who is the main person responsible for the channel and I would have told him that there is what to correct. In general – I don't interfere."
In the run-up to the interview, a search on Mirilashvili Sr.'s Twitter account reveals the social media battles surrounding him, for which he even recently filed a series of defamation lawsuits. Among others, someone there tweeted that Mirilashvili's connections with Putin and Prigozhin in the 1990s are similar to those that he maintains today with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Shas leader Aryeh Deri, and together with Channel 14 they are now pursuing to establish a dictatorship in Israel. Others claimed that the companies he owns are associated with Putin, Prigozhin, and the FSB (Russian intelligence). Other publications about the fact that he served a prison sentence in Russia on charges of kidnapping are now undergoing a preliminary investigation. And the answers – as if you were reading a thriller.
Q: Do you currently have contacts with the President of Russia?
"We have never had a personal connection. As the president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, I dealt with matters related to official events in Russia, or the establishment of the monument in Israel in memory of the Siege of Leningrad, which I was among the organizers and contributors to its establishment. Putin participated in this event along with many other people. There was also a ceremony connected to the Jewish community with Ron Lauder in Moscow, which Putin also attended, and another meeting at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Russia."
Q: So you had no friendly or business relations with the President of Russia, or with his people?
"I sat in prison there for eight years," he replies. This means that in Russia, friends of the president do not sit in prison.
"When we sat down and discussed the details of the lawsuit we were going to file against the tweeters, one of my friends questioned me and said: 'Only file a lawsuit where we are 100 percent right.' I told him: 'I am 100% right in everything. I don't have to prove anything to anyone. They are the ones who have the duty of proof because they are accusing me.'
"My friend said: 'Don't forget that some of the judges of the court have a certain opinion, so if you are not 100% right, it is better not to file.' I said, 'I don't agree with you. It doesn't make a difference that they are left-wingers. I am sure that most of them are very honest people and professionals. Political positions are one thing, it don't enter into professionalism. I don't think that their position is black or white. If you think that way, I have an even greater reason to prove to you and to people like you that this is not the case."
And he continues: "I will deliberately go all the way to prove that I am right and show those writers that they were wrong. I do not want to be like those people who accuse me of nothing; I will not do that. I am sure that justice can be achieved in the Land of Israel, certainly in the court of law."
Q: You recently entered the list of sanctions in Ukraine. Did this happen because of the allegations of your connections with the Russian government?
"We are working to solve it. I entered this list supposedly as a friend of Prigozhin, but I can say that everything is the opposite. I met him 26 years ago. My partner came to me and said: 'I have a childhood friend who has asked me thirty times to introduce us.' I replied: 'If this person is your friend, why did he have to ask 30 times?' And he answered me: 'Because he sells sausages in the market in Leningrad.' In the end, we set up a meeting, and within half an hour Prigozhin explained to me how he could open a chain of supermarkets. I decided to support this initiative and subsidize it, and he went forward with it. This is his success. At a later stage in introduced him to other people, so that they would give him places for trading.
"One of them, his name is Arman, had a labor dispute with Prigozhin, and they both came to me to resolve it." He starts telling a story designed to shed light on the nature of the Wagner's force commander, which probably also led to his death.
Prigozhin describes what happened there, and as soon as I went to ask Arman for his version of the events – Prigozhin ran down the stairs from the second floor. He was so impulsive and was shouting: 'Why should I live if Michael doesn't trust me?' And I am running after him and saying to him: 'Stop, you fool'. Today I regret that I caught up with him and grabbed him. I asked him: 'What are you doing?' He was very impulsive, but also very talented. One day he came and told me that he was opening restaurants; one of them in a Jewish style (not kosher) as a tribute to me."
Q: Have you had joint business in real estate in recent years?
"No. It's a lie," he replies and goes back to the stories that disclose the connection that first developed between Putin and Prigozhin.
"Putin started visiting one of these restaurants, called the 'Old Customs Station'. If I'm not mistaken, that's where they met for the first time. Prigozhin was the manager of the place. He came out and served Putin. From then on, he decided to leave the business with me and move over to work for the Kremlin. He organized receptions for dignitaries. He wanted to take with him everything that he claimed belonged to him. We are talking about ten percent of the business's revenue. I then went to prison and my partners were the ones who managed these lawsuits against him. Even then he had political influence within the system. I have a gut feeling that I went to prison because of Prigozhin, but I have no proof."
Q: I remind you that you went to jail after your father's kidnappers were found dead on the side of the road, and you were charged with their kidnapping.
"That's exactly Prigozhin's seal. The people he sued accused me of kidnapping those who kidnapped my father. This is absolutely not true. Now I'm filing a libel suit for that as well, among other things. I sat in prison for eight years and survived several assassination attempts during the time that I was inside. I say thank you to God for saving me. I had no chance of getting out of it."
Water designed by the President of the United Arab Emirates
The dramatic moment fades when he stops for a moment to offer us a drink of water (produced from moisture) and opens a box that is placed on the table. In it are two bottles of water and two glasses personally designed by the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed. He says that the company "bottles" its bottles there. After compliments, I asked him if he felt persecuted in Russia and that was the reason that he decided to immigrate to Israel after his release.
"I wasn't scared. I had businesses and good friends there. When I was accused of kidnapping, the lawyer told me that no one touches people of my status without reason. And I told him repeatedly: 'I'm telling you the truth.' He warned me that the other detainees in the case would incriminate me because they would be forced to do so. I didn't believe him, and I kept on repeating: 'No one from my immediate surroundings came out against me.' And in fact, the investigators didn't even have anything to ask me except my name.
"When the indictment was filed against me, I demanded that representatives of the chief prosecutor be present there, otherwise I would not participate in the hearing. I said that I wanted everything to be recorded and documented. They treated me very aggressively, but they complied with this request. I told them that I had a statement before filing an indictment. In the statement, I said: 'I'm being accused of terrible criminal acts. I'm sure the prosecutor has nothing against me and he couldn't have. What did I do? Where did I do it? Who did I ask to do it? Nothing. I promise, there are no questions I can't face. Please ask. They had nothing against me."
Q: A business newspaper published in Petersburg wrote last March that you still own companies in Russia, partly in the field of development.
"I have a lot of businesses and directions of businesses, but everything serious, more or less is located in Russia. I sold them after the conflict in Ukraine broke out."
Q: Still, in Israel, there are those who claim that you have business and connections and that you are Putin's emissary to the West.
"This is the reason for my lawsuit. I could say that I abide only by the Torah, but that would be immodest," he smiles, "I abide only by the Torah, and nothing beyond that."
Q: What about the services and storage company Selectel, which was approved by the FSB (Russian intelligence) when it tried to enter the Ukrainian market before Russia's invasion of Ukraine?
"This is not my company," he says, "and I have never had any relationship with it."
From my investigation, Mirilashvili's son Yitzchak, was one of the founders of the company in 2008 and according to recent publications he also owns 82% of its shares.
Q: And real estate ties to Prigozhin after you were released from prison?
"There were none."
Mirilashvili became a doctor in Leningrad in 1977, after immigrating to Russia from the Jewish town of Kulashi in Georgia. He integrated into the business world and became someone closely associated with the elite businessmen in St. Petersburg in the 1990s.
According to Forbes, in August 2020 Mirilashvili was valued at 2.2 billion dollars. He amassed his initial fortune in the early 1980s, when he established a series of businesses in the fields of pharmacy, construction, real estate, and gambling, under the Gorbachev regime in Russia.
The big exit was actually registered by his son, Yitzchak, who was one of the founders of the "Russian Facebook" network, VK, and sold his holdings in it for more than one billion dollars. In 2017, he made another exit, when the network game company Plarium, in which he was invested, was sold for half a billion dollars.
In the mid-1990s, the family immigrated to Israel and began investing also in local companies. He is currently involved in investments in the field of green technology. Among others, he is the owner of Watergen, a company that manufactures devices that produce water from the moisture in the air, and Green Wall, which engages in vertical farming. His son Yitzchak has invested in high-tech, real estate, infrastructure, and communications, among others, in the Rothstein construction company, the IPM Be'er Tuvia power station, and Channel 14. He also profited from the sale of Moovit, in which he had investments.
Regarding his business world, Mirilashvili is only willing to give details about the company whose offices we are sitting in: "There are several companies that are changing the world for the better, Watergen is one of them. Wars break out not because of a battle over land, but because of water. And now we have a solution for that. When I founded the company, I thought about how I could save the lives of millions and improve the quality of life. Thank God, we were able to achieve our goals. And indeed we have a very big impact. We receive inquiries from all over the world about our devices, which produce water from the air, and work with almost a hundred countries. This has a direct impact on many countries, some of which are our enemies, and have become friends and made connections thanks to our technology."
Among others, Mirilashvili notes that his company donated its devices for producing drinking water to children's hospitals in the Gaza Strip and also to a refugee camp in Syria.
"They are wrong about their fears"
In addition to his business, the photographs adorning his office display quite a few philanthropic connections in Israel, among others with the United Israel Appeal – Keren Hayesod, the establishment of a fire station after the Carmel fire disaster, and donations to Yad Vashem and Tel Aviv University. In addition, there were also donations that put him under the police radar in Israel, when it was discovered that he donated generously to organizations run by Yaffa Deri, wife of Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri. According to the suspicions at the time, Mirilashvili donated generously to Yaffa Deri's NGOs because of connections with her husband Aryeh.
Q: What is the nature of the relationship between you and Deri?
"We are friends, but everything that happens here with the police is just terrible. At five AM on a day in May 2017, police officers entered my home with a search warrant. We went to my office after they let me say my morning prayers. When we left the house, one of the young police officers wanted to handcuff me, and the senior police officer said to him: 'No need'.
"From the office, we went to the police station where I was interrogated, and my lawyer also arrived there. I found out that I had the right to consult with my lawyer before an investigation. "I said to him: 'What is this about? I feel very quiet. Innocent.' I was asked if I needed time with my lawyer, and I said no. I was asked why we gave specifically to this organization and why we chose this donation, only because it is connected to Aryeh Deri. They asked me: 'Why did you start helping him?' I replied that I appreciated what he was doing. The investigator said to me: 'You knew he would be a minister and that's why you started helping him.'
"I told him: 'I think he himself did not believe that he would become a minister.' And he continued: 'If you enter into a relationship with Aryeh Deri, you are looking for problems.' The investigator asked me questions and really raised his voice. I asked, 'Why are you shouting at me? I don't have to answer you.' This was not nice behavior. They had no reason to come at night. They could have summoned me for questioning in a dignified way. After half a day I left there, and I was not accused of anything."
Q: What is your level of involvement in Israeli politics? What is the nature of your relationship with Netanyahu?
"We met several times officially at events attended by public figures. I personally think that I respect what he did for the country, like the entire population here. People can't help but recognize what he did for the country. If a person is moral – you can't help but recognize it. But personally – there was nothing between us."
Q: And yet they claim against you and your son Yitzchak that Channel 14 is acting as a spokesperson for Netanyahu.
"It's not normal to think like that. If the channel's journalists believe that Netanyahu has made mistakes and things are not running as they should, they will criticize him for it. When they believe that there are mistakes view, they will act according to the rules of journalistic ethics. Nobody owes Netanyahu anything, and I have no social ties with him."
Mirilashvili returns again to the list of allegations against him: "They are making a big mistake and are panicking in the case of Channel 14. This is one channel that has no influence, compared to them. They (the protest leaders) influence different channels. I have no influence over Channel 14, and this still puts them in a panic. I was deeply disappointed with the Israeli elites. I never made a distinction between right and left.
"I have friends from the left camp and the right camp, and suddenly they started going really crazy against me. They lost their tempers. Do they really think that anyone is interested in a dictatorship? After what I went through in the USSR, I am actually being accused of working to establish a dictatorship here? I blame some of the opponents of the legislation and everyone else is just confused. I was amazed when some of my friends told me that they were starting to fear that there would be a dictatorship here. I thought they were pretending, but they are really scared. I'm sure they are wrong in their fears. This is not happening. When there is a plot like this, there is proof. You can't hide such things."
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