Despite the best efforts of Georgian strongman Mikheil Saakashvili and his ruling party, Georgian voters have delivered astunning victoryto challengerBidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who vowed totamp down tensionswith Russia and free up an increasingly authoritarian system. Saakashvili pulled out all the stops in his campaign to neutralize the first credible political challenge to his rule: his initial response was torevokeIvanishvili’s citizenship. When that raised eyebrows in the West — and a storm of protest in Georgia — Saakashvili backtracked, and turned to other methods. The Georgian opposition, Georgian Dream, was subjected to new rules and regulations, limiting the amount of money they could spend, and opposition supporters were fired from their state jobs.Exorbitant fineswere levied on dissident groups, and gangs of thugs preyed on opposition activists, particularly in rural areas where dependence on state subsidies — and the good graces of the ruling party — is the key to survival.
And, of course, Saakashvili’s Western allies were quick to respond to Ivanishvili’s challenge. A much criticized “survey” put out by the National Democratic Institute — the Democratic party’s international bureau, affiliated with the US government-subsidized National Endowment for Democracy — claimed right before the election that Georgian Dream was “losing support to Saakashvili,” with one of its questionsasking if voters would support Ivanishvili’s “call for street protests” if he lost. A major flaw in this equation: Ivanishvili had made no such call. Yet even after Ivanishvili complained, the US ambassador, John Bass, defended NDI’s intervention in the election, averring that its methodology was correct — even as independent pollsters, not affiliated with the NED, were saying it was a close race. Opposition spokesperson Maia Panjikidze was blunt:
Two people died in Georgia as riot police end five days of opposition protests aim at ousting Western-backed President Mikheil Saakashvili. The Georgian president dismisses the rallies as ‘masquerades,’ hinting that opposition leaders were doing the work of his enemies in the Kremlin
Georgian police attack protesters (not pictured) while dispersing an opposition rally in front of the parliament in Tbilisi. AFP photo.
Two people were killed and dozens injured Thursday when Georgian police used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a rally against President Mikhail Saakashvili's pro-Western government.
The dramatic night-time crackdown ended five days of anti-government rallies and came ahead of Thursday's showpiece military parade to mark Georgia's independence from Moscow. Tension remains high between Tbilisi and Moscow following a war in 2008 and footage of the police action lead the day's state television news in Russia.
U.S. President Barack Obama has thanked his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili for his country's participation in NATO-led international peace efforts in Afghanistan and reaffirmed the United States' support of Georgia's territorial integrity, the White House said. Obama met with Saakashvili on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Lisbon on Friday to discuss the strengthening of bilateral relations, a White House statement said. "The two leaders discussed the Georgian government's efforts to implement political, economic, and defense reforms and our shared interest in securing democracy, stability, and prosperity in Georgia," the statement said. Georgia has deployed about 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, mainly in the volatile southern Helmand Province. Georgia is a staunch ally of the United States and aspires to join NATO. The United States has repeatedly called for the restoration of Georgia's territorial integrity following the August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia. As a result of the five-day war, Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and another former Georgian republic, Abkhazia. also in Greek ..>> http://garizo.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-post_06.html
(Γεωπολιτική ανάλυση της οικονομικής κρίσης και του πολέμου στη Γεωργία)
Υπήρξαν δύο μεγάλα γεγονότα το τελευταίο διάστημα τα οποία θα καθορίσουν το τέλος του μετασοβιετικού κόσμου και φυσικά μας εισάγουν σε μια μεταβατική περίοδο γεμάτη αβεβαιότητες. Πριν καλά καλά σταθεροποιηθεί η κατάσταση μετά το τέλος της σοβιετικής εποχής, τα δύο αυτά γεγονότα που σηματοδοτούν το τέλος της μετασοβιετικής εικοσαετίας επαναπροσδιορίζουν το γεωπολιτικό παιχνίδι και τις παγκόσμιες ισορροπίες. Το ένα απο αυτά τα δύο μεγάλα γεγονότα είναι φυσικά η μεγάλη οικονομική κρίση που ξεκίνησε απο τις ΗΠΑ και απειλεί με ύφεση την ανθρωπότητα, ύφεση που θα έχει καταλυτικές επιπτώσεις ακόμη και στη συμπεριφορά των κρατών, και το άλλο οι εξελίξεις στη Γεωργία και την Οσετία..........>>> http://garizo.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-post_06.html -----------------------------------------
She said, it is an unreasonable decision to build some parts of Georgian government at the Memorial place in 2012. “These steps won’t solve country’s problems, besides, it will lead to big costs,” she said.
MOSCOW, December 20 (RIA Novosti) - Georgian authorities have detained a suspect as an investigation is underway into Saturday's deadly demolition of a monument in the South Caucasus country's second largest city, Kutaisi.
An eight-year-old girl and her mother were killed in yesterday's controlled blast when a monument to World War Two heroes, the Glory Memorial, was demolished in Kutaisi. The deaths apparently resulted from violation of safety regulations.
The detained suspect is the technical director of a private company involved in the blasting work, Georgian prosecutors said, adding that he faces up to five years in prison should he be found guilty.
A parliament building is reportedly planned to be built at the site of the demolished monument.
Georgia's opposition has said the officials who decided to demolish the memorial should be held accountable. Opposition forces intend to hold a protest rally in Kutaisi on Monday.
Russia has condemned the Georgian war memorial blast as an act of barbarism and state vandalism.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday the Georgian authorities "committed an act of state vandalism, offending the feelings of any civilized person."
The Memorial of Glory is dedicated to the World War II lost soldiers, and is built in Kutaisi, country’s second largest city.
He turned himself over to authorities at the Russian border on Saturday.According to the security service in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, Badri Afanasyev applied for political asylum upon his arrival from Azerbaijan at a Dagestani check point.Afanasyev was a producer at Imedi TV, which used to belong to Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili. According to Afanasyev, the Georgian secret services started to persecute him for his contacts with the Georgian opposition before Patarkatsishvili died in February 2008.The man also claimed that the secret services attempted to make him sign falsified documents that would discredit Imedi and Patarkatsishvili.“The security services offered me a deal,” Afanasyev said. “They said we are giving you our protection but you have to say that Imedi and Patarkatsishvili are making you dodge taxes. If you do this we will finish off Imedi, if you refuse you will go to jail.” According to Tengiz Begishvili of the Institute for Conflict Studies, Afanasyev is just one of the many Georgians being terrorized for opposing the regime.“It is not the first case of a Georgian journalist seeking political asylum,” he said. “Working for Imedi, Badri Afanasyev must have known many secrets; that is why he presented a threat to the Saakashvili government.”
Afanasyev’s application for political asylum will now be considered under Russian law.
Patarkatsishvili was one of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s rivals and used Imedi TV to speak out against the regime. The channel was closed after providing independent reporting on opposition clashes in November 2007. It was later reopened, but under new management.A criminal case was launched against Patarkatsishvili and he was sentenced to two months in prison in absentia. After the businessman died in London, the case against him was closed.Several months prior to his death, the businessman started to be actively involved in politics, announcing the creation of an opposition party in Georgia and standing for preside
The August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia was started by Tbilisi's unjustified military attack on South Ossetia, concludes an independent report commissioned by the EU and published on Wednesday.
"There is the question of whether the use of force by Georgia in South Ossetia, beginning with the shelling of Tskhinvali during the night of 7/8 August 2008, was justifiable under international law. It was not," the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia said. The report said Russia's response to the Georgian aggression was "legal," as the initial military operations were of a defensive nature, but subsequent Russian actions "went far beyond the reasonable limits of defense" and were "in violation of international law."The report concluded that "even though both sides stress their commitment to a peaceful future, the risk of a new confrontation remains serious."The fact-finding mission was established by the European Union on December 2, 2008, with Heidi Tagliavini, a Swiss diplomat and former head of the United Nations Observer Mission inGeorgia, as its head.
Russian troops moved into South Ossetia after the Georgian assault and expelled Georgian forces in five days of fighting that were ended by an EU-negotiated ceasefire.Many residents of South Ossetia, which had been de facto independent since the early 1990s, held Russian citizenship, and several hundred Russian peacekeepers were deployed in the republic.
The report said Russia's actions to defend its peacekeepers were justified under international law, but condemned the Russian push far beyond the boundaries of South Ossetia. It also condemned South Ossetian attacks on ethnic Georgians within the republic, and on Georgian troops after the August 12 ceasefire.The armed action of Abkhazia, another former Georgian republic, to reclaim the disputed Kodori Gorge from Tbilisi's control, and Russia's support of that action, was also considered illegal under international law by the commission, which stressed that it was not a tribunal.Russian prosecutors confirmed that 162 residents of South Ossetia were killed in the conflict, and 255 injured. Sixty-four Russian servicemen were killed, including 15 peacekeepers.Russia recognized both South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent two weeks after the conflict and has several thousand troops stationed in the republics to ensure security in the region.Mikhail Alexandrov, chief expert on the Caucasus at the Institute for CIS Studies, said the report's conclusion that Georgia started the conflict meant the international community, and particularly the European Union, should reconsider its position on recognizing the two regions.
"It certainly opens opportunities for recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," he said.
πρέπει να φάει ακόμα πολλά καρβέλια ακόμα ο Αρχων της Ραφήνας ο επονομαζόμενος και "καταλληλότερος" για να μπορέσει να παίξει σε διπλό ταμπλό .. σαν τον κουμπάρο του τον ανατολίτη..
Για την ώρα.. μετά τις χυλόπιτες που έφαγε τελευταία από τον Vlad ας βγάλει την κακία του με κουτοπονηριές.. σαν και την σημερινή .. που βάλανε την ΝΕΤ όλο το βράδυ και έπαιζε δηλώσεις του εκπροσώπου ( άντε να πούμε πρεσβη..) του γελοίου υποκειμένου που ακούει στο όνομα Σαακασβίλι, με ανακοινώσεις και δηλώσεις και γιορτές του καθεστώτος για την εισβολή στην Ν Οσσετία ( για την οποία η ΝΕΤ .. δεν έχει ακούσει ακόμα ..ούτε την έκθεσητου ΟSCE ξέρει.. )
ΕΛΛΑΣ - Γεωργία συμμαχία λοιπόν (διαλέγουμε τους συμμάχους που μας αξίζουν..)
MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's General Staff suspects Georgia of planning new military action, despite being incapable of any aggression at the current time, a senior Russian military official said on Wednesday. Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said that unnamed third countries were continuing to help Georgia rebuild its military potential. "As for weapons they are indeed being supplied, and financing is underway...Georgia has funds to develop its armed forces," he said, adding that "unfortunately, Georgia is restoring its military potential at a fast rate." Nogovitsyn described Russia's key task as preventing a new conflict. "Today, we are trying to prevent a new conflict and will do everything possible to stop it taking place. This is our key task now," he said. According to Nogovitsyn, Russia has no plans to reinforce its military presence in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Moscow recognized the independence of the two former Georgian republics soon after last August's war with Georgia over South Ossetia. "We do not see any need for increasing the operating contingent," he said.Looking back at the conflict ahead of the first anniversary this Saturday in which 64 Russian soldiers, including 15 peacekeepers, were killed, Nogovitsyn said Georgian planes camouflaged with Russian insignia had attacked refugees."It has been established that Georgia twice used Russian aircraft insignia on its Su-25(Frogfoot) planes: on August 8 when it bombed a column of vehicles carrying refugees from Tskhinvali [South Ossetia's capital],... and on August 9 [when it attacked] a column of Russian troops moving along the Dzara road [from Tskhinvali]," the military official said.He said the evidence had been submitted to the international community and Moscow was still waiting for the European Union to suggest a punishment for Georgia."What is most depressing is those countries that with the help of the EU mission have received a comprehensive report that Georgia and the Georgian leadership was the aggressor and should be punished, have yet to react," the military official said.
04/08/2009 - Georgia Attacks again !!! The situation in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone rapidly deteriorated after Tskhinval and a number of other residential districts and villages in South Ossetia were attacked in the evening of August 1. Combat with the use of small arms, grenade launchers and mortars ensued in the conflict zone for several hours. It resulted in the first human losses and substantial destruction. South Ossetia began evacuating its citizens to North Ossetia. In the first two days after the shelling, 2,500 residents left their homes.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry says its troops stationed in South Ossetia are on high alert. This comes after reports of further shelling of the republic by Georgia. The South Ossetian Ministry of Defense says the village of Otrev, near the capital Tskhinval, was attacked on Monday evening. “The situation is really worrying as provocation from the Georgian side continues on the eve of the first anniversary of the August 2008 events. Due to this, Russian army units and frontier guards stationed in South Ossetia have been put on alert,” said Andrey Nesterenko, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman. He said that “The most important thing at the moment is to avoid any escalation and turn exchanges of fire into bigger conflicts.” “We have been and will do everything to ensure that,” Nesterenko added.
A Georgian navy lieutenant, Alik Bzhania, who defected to Russia seeking political asylum, has said his decision was prompted not by fear of threats, but disagreement with Georgian President Saakashvili’s policies. “I did not have any problems, I was not in the opposition, and I am not a politician. Everything was fine, but I am just against the course that our president is following,”Bzhania said at a press conference at the Interfax main office on Friday. On Saturday, Interfax reported that another Georgian soldier has fled his country to seek political asylum in Russia. The news agency quotes a source based in southern Russia. However, the source did not provide any details. The Russian Migration Service has not commented on the information either.
“Saakashvili could start the war again” Saakashvili is militarizing Georgia and I`m afraid that he could start the war again, said Alik Bzhania in an exclusive interview with RT. Lieutenant Alik Bzhania says the main reason he left is because he did not want to fight a war with Russia.“The Georgian forces are rearming. Reservists are being summoned to the armed forces. I saw reports about it every day on Georgian state television. Saakashvili is clearly not changing his course and I don’t want to take part in another war with Russia. I don’t want to shoot at my brothers. That’s why I left,” Alik Bzhania said. At a crowded media briefing in Moscow, Bzhania explained why he wants asylum in Russia, pointing his finger directly at his country’s president. “In the Georgian army, we couldn’t even say something negative about Saakashvili’s regime. Otherwise we could be immediately kicked out. And I could no longer tolerate watching my country being destroyed from the inside,” Alik Bzhania said.Speaking on why he chose Russia as his destination, he said he hoped for help from his relatives living there. He added he didn’t see Russia as an enemy of the Georgian people and blamed the Georgian government for pushing the conflict out of control.He said Russia kept its word, given to the people of South Ossetia, and protected them, unlike the US, which failed to defend its Georgian allies in the conflict. On the other hand, he strongly objected to Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as nations, saying it set a bad example for other autonomous or semi-autonomous regions. "I'm afraid for my relatives"According to Bzhania, he is seeking publicity about himself in order to protect his family from possible persecution by the Georgian authorities. He wants his parents and brother brought to Russia to join him. "I worry very much about my parents. I have no wife or children. My mother is a housewife, and my father works. My brother is unemployed," Bzhania said.
He even asked the Red Cross to assist the transportation of his parents from Georgia.
RT has obtained exclusive footage of the questioning of the man by Russian special services. Bzhania said he had served as a navigator with the Georgian coastal guard in the port city of Poti. Bzhania is now 35 and he said he first entered military service back in 1995, but later resigned. During the time of the military conflict between Georgia and Russia in August last year he was working as a construction worker. In October this year he returned to his military career. However, on May 23 he left the Georgian forces. He deserted and went into Abkhazian territory, where he surrendered to Russian border guards providing security in the region. Once he crossed the Abkhazian border, he was held in custody while Russian intelligence checked his information. Russia's security services have said they don’t exclude the possibility of provocations from Georgia following the event. “Since the fact of the crossing of the border by a Georgian military officer is now circulating in the media, we don’t exclude that some provocations or speculations may happen, probably by Georgia,” the source said.
Controversy rages over Bzhania's dismissal
Tbilisi described the defection as a provocation and stressed that Bzhania had been, in fact, fired from the country’s naval forces prior to his crossing the border. The border police department of Georgia’s Interior Ministry said that“Lieutenant Alik Bzhania was serving in Georgia’s Interior Ministry border police as a patrol vessel specialist from October 2008, and was dismissed from service on May 18, 2009 for repeated breaches of discipline”. Earlier, though, Georgia’s Interior Ministry said that Alik Bzhania was dismissed from service on an order dated June 12, 2009, according to News – Georgia news agency. ut Bzhania knocked the bottom out of the statement that he was dismissed from the Navy before he fled to Russia. During RT’s live television broadcast, Bzhania showed his officer’s ID card and said that, if he had been dismissed from service before he fled to Russia, this card would have been taken from him in accordance with the rules. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief of Russia's General Staff, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, has announced that Alik Bzhania “is not a person of interest for Russia’s Armed Forces.” The competent authorities that address the issue are working with him now. For Russia’s Armed Forces, this officer is not of interest,"Nogovitsyn stressed. The Russian Federal Migration Service has said the request for asylum is now being considered. A spokesman for the agency said they have 183 people from Georgia registered as refugees as of June 1. Bzhania’s escape comes amid mounting tension between Moscow and Tbilisi. Russia’s Foreign Ministry believes Georgia is deliberately raising tensions in the South Ossetian and Abkhazian regions
Russian-Georgian relations have been tense since Tbilisi attacked South Ossetia last August, sparking a five-day conflict. Just last month, Georgian authorities blamed Russia for inciting soldiers to mutiny at one of its army bases in an alleged attempt to prevent Georgia from forming closer ties with NATO. At the same time, Tbilisi believes that Russia has become paranoid.
Tensions high in Georgia While this blame-game continues, Georgia is going through repeated political crises, and opposition leaders say no wonder someone would want to defect from such an army. Opposition rallies have been continuing for weeks, with protesters locking themselves in cages while demanding President Saakashvili step down. They have accused the president of turning Georgia into a police state and creating a corrupt political regime. Other accusations have to do with using the law to restrain the military and cracking down on freedom of speech.
ΤBILISI, May 26 - Georgia's opposition, which has been demanding the president's resignation for around two months, said it planned to start "radical acts" on Tuesday."Today we will seal the railway, from today we will start the most radical acts," Eka Beselia of the Movement for United Georgia, said at a rally outside the Georgian parliament. Leader of the Georgia's Way party Salome Zurabishvili said: "We will shut central highways with cars and then will walk and close the railway track."Zviad Dzidziguri, who heads the Conservative Party, said: "We have plans to initially stage a peaceful rally at the railways and at airports." "Our actions will be peaceful but extremely radical," he said. In a statement issued earlier on Tuesday Georgia's opposition called on the international community to help resolve the situation in the country and end the stalemate following around six weeks of protests. A total of 14 leading opposition parties and groups first took to the streets in Tbilisi on April 9 to call for President Mikheil Saakashvili to step down over his failure to carry out democratic reforms and last August's disastrous war with Russia.
Georgia's former republic of Abkhazia has withdrawn from the fifth round of talks in Geneva planned for May 18-19, Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba said on Saturday. The Geneva talks, which are supported by the UN, EU and OSCE, and involve Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia are aimed at trying to reduce tension in the conflict zone, following a short war between Russia and Georgia, which launched an offensive on its former republic of South Ossetia last August. Shamba cited delays in receiving the UN annual report on the region as a reason for pulling out of the talks. "We agreed that on May 15 when the report was published we would receive a copy, but we have not received one yet. Now they say May 18, the day of the talks. However, considering the time difference, it will be after the talks have been held by the time we get the report," Shamba said. "We consider this as clearly underhand. Therefore the Abkhaz delegation will not travel to Geneva for the next round of talks," he said. Russia's Foreign Ministry said that at the upcoming talks Moscow would be seeking a "non-use of force guarantee" from Tbilisi "in relation to their neighbors in the region." "First of all a legal binding ceasefire agreement needs to be signed between Georgia and South Ossetia, and also Georgia a nd Abkhazia," a Foreign Ministry statement read. Following the conflict, Russia recognized both of Georgia's former republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. Russia and the two republics signed border protection agreements at the end of April. Russian border guards have been deployed along the Abkhazia and South Ossetian borders since May 2. The border deal came at a time of increased tensions between Moscow and NATO, after the alliance went ahead with military exercises in the region and two Russian NATO envoys were expelled over spying claims. Russian border guards discovered a large arms cache, containing over 50 antitank mines and over 100 kg of TNT, which overall were equivalent to 500 kg of TNT, in the Kodori Gorge area near the Georgian-Abkhaz border, the first head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) border department in Abkhazia told journalists on Saturday. Col. Dmitry Korolyov described the find as a "significant result" and said the hideout was discovered on May 13, but gave no information on any possible owners of the cache.
The Russian President says that while the formation of a new Euro-Atlantic "security matrix" is not aimed at NATO, it would negate the need for its expansion. "If we can create such a new matrix of relations, I think this would be effective," Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Rossia television. "A new document should be drafted to ensure security in Europe and it should not be aimed against NATO," Medvedev stressed in the interview aired Saturday. "And it would certainly be better than moving NATO in all directions. In any case, such approaches do not suit us and we will react to them," he added. Earlier on Saturday, the Russian leader strongly criticized NATO's insistence on carrying out war games in neighboring Georgia, which engaged in a brief war with Russia in August, despite Moscow's repeated objections to the move seen by the Kremlin as "provocative." "We cannot but be worried by the NATO exercises in Georgia," Medvedev told reporters after meeting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. "They create tension...I think they add nothing to European security."
BARVIKHA (Moscow Region), May 16 (RIA Novosti) - NATO drills in Georgia have increased tensions and have not contributed to international security, the Russian president said after talks with Italy's prime minister on Saturday."I think they will add nothing to the bank of pan-European security but will on the contrary increase tensions," Dmitry Medvedev told journalists. The Cooperative Longbow/Cooperative Lancer 2009 command-and-staff exercise, which Moscow has criticized as unhelpful in the wake of last summer's armed conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia, runs from May 6 to June 1. NATO said earlier the exercise had been planned before the Georgia war and was not aimed against Russia.According to NATO, the drills in Georgia are aimed at improving interoperability between NATO and partner countries, within the framework of Partnership for Peace, Mediterranean Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative programs, and will not involve any light or heavy weaponry. Russia was invited to take part in the exercises, but declined the opportunity.Over 1,300 troops from 19 NATO member or ally states were originally scheduled to participate, but Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Serbia and Armenia withdrew
Since losing a war to -- and its markets in -- Russia, Georgia has seen worsening poverty and unemployment. The recent failed rebellion was only the most recent sign of discontent with President Saakashvili. Upcoming protests promise to challenge he leadership even further. It wasn't what serious coup attempts generally look like. And the rebellion led by a Georgian army tank unit based outside Tbilisi collapsed almost as soon as it had started. The soldiers laid down their weapons and surrendered without a shot being fired after President Mikhail Saakashvili publicly threatened to quash their revolt by force. Citing no direct evidence, Saakashvili claimed that the insurgents had "long" been aligned with Russian intelligence services. In response, a spokesman for the Russian intelligence services said that the matter was really nothing more than "the feverish delirium and agony of the Saakashvili regime." Before laying down their weapons, a spokesman for the alleged coup leaders had announced that he and his comrades could no longer "accept the current domestic political situation." As they saw it, Saakashvili was pursuing a "process of destroying the country." Of course, such words sound more like a cause for everyday dissatisfaction rather than a clear plan for seizing power by force. An interview given by Georgian Ombudsman Sozar Subeliani to the independent news agency Civil Georgia reveals just how much tension is brewing in Georgia's military forces. Subeliani and his colleagues recently probed the current circumstances in Saakashvili's army. The soldiers complained to him about a "lack of medicines, water and food." They were forced to chop firewood for their superior officers, despite the fact that the military unit itself had no sufficient heating. Such complaints suggest the Georgian troops are similar to Russian soldiers, their enemies to the north, who have often complained of similar conditions. Saakashvili likes to watch his army parade down Tbilisi's Rustaveli Boulevard bearing weapons, uniforms and steel helmets from the United States. It fosters the impression that his army has been modernized. Approximately 150 American military advisers are working frantically on transforming the Georgians into soldiers that might be fit enough to join the NATO alliance. But the reality is sobering. While Saakashvili repeats the claim that his country is ready for NATO membership, if you trust what the ombudsman reports, the country's military forces actually have much more in common with the military forces of a Third World country. When the president addresses his own people rather than Western politicians, diplomats or journalists, Saakashvili already admits that he rules over a land of paupers. While touring a textile factory in the province of Ajaria on Monday, he told workers there that "Georgia's main enemies are unemployment and poverty." Since the end of its violent conflict with Russia last summer, Georgia's foreign trade has contracted by 70 percent and foreign investments in the country have dropped by two-thirds. Georgia and its surroundingsFor centuries, the primary market for Georgian products -- such as wine, tangerines and vegetables -- has been in Russia. But as long as Saakashvili remains president, Russia refuses to re-establish diplomatic relations or even negotiate trade relations. Russia accuses him of having started the war in August by attacking the city of Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, which is predominantly inhabited by people who enjoy Russian citizenship. The five-day war ended in Georgia's greatest defeat since declaring its independence in 1992. In the wake of Russia's victory, Georgia lost all control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two of its former provinces. But the war also cost Georgia access to Russian markets, which will condemn the country to poverty for years to come. Widespread poverty has spawned massive demonstrations from opposition forces clamoring for Saakashvili to step down and usher in new elections. Were new elections to be held, Georgia's constitution would not permit Saakashvili to declare himself a candidate for re-election. It also seems exceedingly doubtful that he could succeed in helping a successor -- whom he approved of -- get elected. Under these circumstances, he prefers to cling to power and denounce members of the opposition as would-be henchmen of Moscow. Saakashvili has already been hallucinating about pro-Russian coup plots since November 2007, when massive demonstrations by his opponents led him to declare a state of emergency. The extent to which the authorities will go to combat Georgians who are thought to be sympathetic to Russia can already be seen in a court case from September 2006. At that time, a court in Tbilisi sentenced a man to several years in prison for allegedly being involved in a coup plot. The man had been a member of the party Justice, led by Igor Giorgadze, a former minister of state security, who was living in exile in Russia. In what turned out to be a show trial, Giorgadze's niece Maia Topuria was sentence to 8.5 years in prison. And Revaz Bulia, the party's secretary, who had been legally residing in Tbilisi, was given 4.5 years. The party, which did not find much popular support, never presented a real threat to the state. And now that Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been lost to Russia, which unilaterally declared their independence, groups in Georgia that harbor sympathies for Russia have even less popular appeal than before the war. This doesn't mean that the Russian intelligence services will try to prevent a few of their puppets in Georgia from fomenting armed revolt. Indeed, as far as they are concerned, they aren't shy about expressing their desire to see Saakashvili depart from the political stage -- whether as the result of a democratic process or in a body bag. In the 1920s, the Soviet journalist and writer Isaac Babel described Georgia as "seething like cheap wine." The next major conflict between those in power and the opposition will come on May 8, when the latter plans to block the central highway linking the country's western and eastern parts. Chances are that Saakashvili won't wait long before coming down with hard countermeasures.
TBILISI, April 29 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia's opposition leaders said on Wednesday that they are willing to engage in dialogue with the leadership on the condition that President Mikheil Saakashvili agrees to resign. Crowds of activists have been holding protests outside parliament in Tbilisi since April 9, accusing Saakashvili of stifling democracy and leading the country into a disastrous war with Russia last summer. Former parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze, who leads the Opposition Democratic Movement-United Georgia party, told reporters: "You know very well that the opposition has not refused dialogue with the authorities. The issue was set out - the president's resignation. I have said several times that I see no possibility of discussing other issues with the president." The Georgian leader's popularity has plummeted since last August's military incursion into South Ossetia, which led to the conflict with Russia, a situation worsened by the mass unemployment brought about by the global financial crisis. He has also been widely accused of failing to make good on promises to carry out democratic reforms after the 2003 "Rose Revolution" that brought him to power. Another opposition leader, Georgy Khaindrava, told the crowd outside parliament: "We will not abandon the country to this Satan." David Gamkrelidze, the leader of the New Rightists, said that dialogue with the president must be open, but not live on television, as some in the opposition have demanded. "Part of society wants and is ready for dialogue...that is logical and understandable," Gamkrelidze said, adding that he was "ready to hear from the other side." "We have said that we are not against dialogue, but we demand that dialogue be with Saakashvili personally...not live on the air, but open so as not to hide from society. The issue on the agenda is Saakashvili's resignation and immediate elections," he said. Saakashvili said on Tuesday he was open to talks with the opposition. "We should forget hatred and standoffs... We should put our motherland first and ask each other for forgiveness... Hatred destroys small states. I am ready to resume the dialog, to overcome the difficulties and to save the country," the president said, shaking hands with opposition leader Irakli Alasania after attending a special prayer session with Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II, who declared Tuesday a day of nationwide repentance.
Georgia detains cargo ship with Russian crew April 7 - A Georgian coast guard vessel has detained a cargo ship with a crew of 14 Russians on board, the Sovfracht maritime bulletin said on Tuesday. The V. Uspensky ship was bound for the port of Azov, on the Don River in south Russia's Rostov Region, from a Turkish port when a group of 13 armed Georgian coast guards boarded it late on Monday. The coast guards also confiscated the vessel's documentation and the sailors' passports. The cargo ship has now been taken to the Georgian port of Batumi. Preliminary reports say it was detained over navigational violations. The ship was sailing under the Cambodian flag. The V. Uspensky, with a deadweight of 5,379 metric tons, is operated by the Volgo-Don Shipping company, based in Rostov-on-Don.
MOSCOW, March 31 (RIA Novosti) - A Georgian opposition leader pledged on Tuesday to try to prevent mass disorder from breaking out during upcoming protests to demand President Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation. A total of 14 Georgian opposition parties have said they will take part in the rallies, scheduled to begin on April 9.
"Everything necessary must be done to avoid shooting or any other violence,"Nino Burdzhanadze, who heads the opposition For a United Georgia party, said in an interview with the Russian business daily Kommersant. "But nothing can be ruled out, especially with such a government." Burdzhanadze also said however that there was a chance that despite her efforts, violence could erupt at the protests. "This danger exists. But if you are afraid of wolves, you should keep out of the forest." When asked if the protests could lead to the start of civil war in the former Soviet republic, Burdzhanadze, who is also the parliamentary speaker, said, "I hope this will not happen, and I will do anything to prevent it." "Civil war should be prevented, as well as any military scenario - the country will not be able to cope with it," she said. Saakashvili has seen his popularity steadily decline since last August's conflict with Russia, which was followed by Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, republics that had been de facto independent from Tbilisi since the early 1990s. Last November, around 10,000 protesters gathered on the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, to demonstrate both against Saakashvili's rule and his decision to drag the country into a costly war that it had little chance of winning. "The absolute majority dislikes Saakashvili," Burdzhanadze said. "While Saakashvili is in power, there is no guarantee that Georgia will not lose a few more regions." Several opposition activists, including 10 members of Burdzhanadze's party, were recently arrested on suspicion of illegally buying firearms ahead of the protests. Burdzhanadze however called the arrests "mudslinging" that the majority of people did not believe in. She also said that the only negotiations she was willing to enter into with Saakashvili were "about the president's resignation." "Talks can only be held on how to make his resignation as painless as possible for the country," she added. A year prior to the anti-war protests, Georgia was rocked by opposition rallies for six days as protestors occupied central Tbilisi demanding Saakashvili's resignation over allegations of corruption and increasing authoritarianism. The Georgian leader responded by sending in riot police to crack down on protestors on November 7. Over 500 people were injured, according to the U.S. rights group, Human Rights Watch, as police used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons to break up the demonstrations.
Georgia said on Saturday hundreds of Russian soldiers had moved into a disputed Georgian village near breakaway South Ossetia and had pushed out Georgian police, fuelling fears of confrontation.A regional police official and an interior ministry spokesman said between 500 and 600 Russian soldiers were in the village of Perevi, close to the de facto border with the region.Russian forces pulled back in October from a buffer zone adjacent to South Ossetia after a five-day war in August, but kept soldiers in Perevi, which sits on the Georgian side of the de facto border.Russian troops had briefly pulled out of the village on Friday, only to return in small numbers by nightfall.Georgia has condemned the Russian presence in Perevi as a violation of the ceasefire brokered after the war, when Russia intervened in its former Soviet neighbor to halt a Georgian military assault on pro-Russian South Ossetia.European Union ceasefire monitors, who took credit on Friday for the Russian withdrawal, confirmed Russian forces were in the village on Saturday, but could not say how many.Georgian police who moved in on Friday had pulled back again under a Russian ultimatum, police said. "The Russians kicked the police out of Perevi this morning," Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said. "They staged a show with paratroopers."News that the Russian troops had moved 3 km (1.8 miles) east on Friday across the boundary had eased fears of confrontation. Some of the 1,100 villagers had already left.
The village sits on a small mountain road entering South Ossetia from the west.South Ossetia claims the village as its own. The EU monitors say it clearly lies outside South Ossetia's de facto borders. The monitors said Friday's pullback followed discussions with the Russian foreign ministry and military.Utiashvili said a delegation of European diplomats visiting the area on Saturday was barred from entering the village.Russia has recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent states backed by Russian military protection. The two regions threw off Tbilisi's rule in the early 1990s.Russia said it intervened in Georgia to save civilians from a Georgian military bid to retake South Ossetia after months of skirmishes and allegations of Russian provocation. The West condemned Moscow's response as disproportionate.
Tbilisi hiring Chechen militants for sabotage- FSB Georgian security services have intensified intelligence and sabotage operations against Russian army forces in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, according to Russia's Federal Security Service, the FSB, who say Tbilisi intends to engage Chechen militants in these efforts. In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, First Deputy head of the FSB's Military Counter-intelligence Department Lt.Gen. Vladimir Nosov said that Georgian authorities are still trying to regain control over the former breakaway republics by force. Moscow also learnt that Georgian security services have detained a number of Russian citizens, including Defence Ministry servicemen, who were visiting families on Georgian territory. They allegedly used them to film fabricated evidence that Russians were sent to kill the Georgian president and overthrowing his regime. The FSB does not rule out that the footage may be given to Georgian and Western media to compromise Russia as well as to presented it as 'proof' at the Hague court and to convince NATO of the need for Georgian to gain membership in the alliance as soon as possible.The paper has also published an open letter signed by 40 ethnic Georgians serving under contract in the 42nd Russian division deployed in Chechnya. They urged their compatriots to stop “marionette” Saakashvili and prevent the incumbent regime from "shaming the nation."
του γελοίου υποκειμένου που ακούει στο όνομα Σαακασβίλι, 
με ανακοινώσεις και δηλώσεις και γιορτές του καθεστώτος για την εισβολή στην Ν Οσσετία ( για την οποία η ΝΕΤ .. δεν έχει ακούσει ακόμα ..
