"... Everywhere they make a table, everywhere there is, we also started to bring artists, artists to performances, for example, football, the soccer team of Dynamos Bliss which was then 3 times champions of the Soviet Union, you know what the champion of the Soviet Union is, one after the other artists, after that cinema, movies, bands and all that and why did we do it, we brought them? In order for them to appear before the congregation because this is actually part of the cultural activity of the congregation and so automatically you come to the Minister of Culture, set a table, invite other ministers, invite and that's how I knew, in fact, the entire top echelons of the communist regime of Georgia at that time, in Georgia, I repeat in Georgia" (Prov. p. 1156, s. 5).
In his testimony, the defendant described how he was called upon to assist the State of Israel, against the background of the connections that were established with various elements in the countries of the former Soviet Union.
He noted in his testimony as follows:
"All the activity I described here was all voluntary, I was not in any position, in anything, I was an insurance agent... In the State of Israel, they discovered the potential that an opening could be opened for the immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union, I am talking to you about the year 1987, the second aliyah had not yet begun, so what happened, there is a body in the country called the Liaison Bureau, the Liaison Bureau is a body that is responsible for the issue of the Diaspora... They identified the potential and the connections that exist and started asking Ephraim and me for help in all kinds of things, on the subject of making contact and possibilities to start bringing the Jews to Israel..." (Prov. p. 1155, s. 20).
At that time, towards the end of the 1980s, the Soviet Union began a process of disintegration, a process that ended in 1991, when the Soviet Union split into a large number of countries. The period of disintegration and the first years of independence of the various countries were characterized, among other things, by attempts by various businessmen to identify business opportunities. The defendant described how, against the background of the connections he had accumulated in his public-volunteer activity, a number of businessmen approached him in order to help them establish contacts and promote various businesses in Georgia. One of the businessmen came from the oil field, and cooperation developed between him and the defendant in the field of oil trade. The cooperation lasted for several years, during which the defendant accumulated knowledge in this field, and in 1997 he established a joint venture with Glencore, which was described as the world's largest company in the field of energy and commerce, and his independent activity as a businessman in the field of energy began to flourish, while continuing to establish contacts with various people and entities in this field.