Situatzia din Georgia, un nou Gamsakhurdia sau..?

[lia]

Opoziţia din Georgia a ocupat sediul Parlamentului

22.11.2003 16:25 Ora Rom�niei



Susţinătorii opoziţiei din Georgia au ocupat clădirea Parlamentului din Tbilisi, după săptăm�ni de proteste legate de alegerile parlamentare. �n fruntea demonstranţilor s-a aflat liderul opoziţiei, Mihail Saakaşvili, care a promis că demonstraţia nu va degenera �n violenţe.

Preşedintele Eduard Şevarnadze a fost evacuat din clădire de către bodyguarzii săi, dar a refuzat să demisioneze citez "�n faţa c�torva sute de protestatari".

Forţele armate care �nconjurau Parlamentul georgian, nu au intervenit �mpotriva demonstranţilor.

Imaginile prezentate la televiziunea georgiană sunt asemănătoare cu scenele văzute �n 1989 c�nd s-au prăbuşit regimurile comuniste din Europa de Est.

[zeugeniu]

Pe cand asa ceva si in Moldova ruseasca?

[lia]

22.11.2003 20:14 Ora Rom�niei


Susţinătorii opoziţiei din Georgia au ocupat sediile Parlamentului şi Preşedinţiei din Tbilisi, după săptăm�ni de proteste legate de fraudarea alegerilor parlamentare. �n fruntea demonstranţilor, care contestă legitimitatea noului Parlament, s-a aflat liderul opoziţiei, Mihail Saakaşvili, care a promis că demonstraţia nu va degenera �n violenţe. Preşedintele Eduard Şevarnadze, care tocmai rostea un discurs �n Parlament, a fost evacuat din clădire de către bodyguarzii săi, dar a refuzat să demisioneze citez "�n faţa c�torva sute de protestatari". El a declarat starea de urgenţă �n ţară. Fostul preşedinte al Parlamentului, Nino Burdzhanadze, a anunţat că ar fi preluat puterea �n locul preşedintelui Şevarnadze. Forţele armate care �nconjurau Parlamentul georgian, nu au intervenit �mpotriva demonstranţilor. Imaginile prezentate la televiziunea georgiană sunt asemănătoare cu scenele văzute �n 1989 c�nd s-au prăbuşit regimurile comuniste din Europa de Est.

De la Moscova se relatează că preşedintele Vladimir Putin l-a trimis �n Georgia pe ministrul de externe rus, Igor Ivanov. Ministrul apărării de la Moscova, Serghei Ivanov, a declarat la r�ndul său că trupele ruse aflate pe teritoriul Georgiei, nu vor interveni �n criza politică declanşată la Tbilisi.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/romanian/news1.shtml

Eduard Şevarnadze nu părăseşte Georgia
24.11.2003 1:05 Ora Rom�niei


Fostul preşedinte georgian, Eduard Şevarnadze, a declarat că va răm�ne �n ţară, deşi a fost forţat să demisioneze. Au existat speculaţii că, �n urma unei invitaţii a guvernului german, Şevarnadze ar putea părăsi ţara, dar fostul preşedinte le-a infirmat.

Nino Burjanadze, care a preluat prerogativele de la Şevarnadze, după demisia acestuia, a promis că va asigura protecţia fostului preşedinte. Ea a adăugat că Georgia �şi va menţine orientarea pro-occidentală şi că aspiră să adere la NATO şi UE c�t mai cur�nd posibil.

Una din primele decizii ale noilor conducători de la Tbilisi, a fost de a cere demisia ministrului de interne, Koba Narchemaşvili.

Viaţa �n Georgia �ncepe să revină la normal după "revoluţia de catifea" care a avut loc la sf�rşitul săptăm�nii trecute şi �n urma căreia preşedintele Eduard Şevarnadze a fost silit să demisioneze, fiind acuzat că ar fi falsificat alegerile parlamentare.

Secretarul de stat american, Colin Powell, a salutat transferul paşnic de putere care a avut loc la Tbilisi. Statele Unite au sprijinit Georgia de c�nd aceasta şi-a declarat independenţa şi acum susţin proiectul unei conducte de transport petrol de la Marea Caspică, spre Occident, care să treacă pe teritoriul ţării.

Preşedintele rus, Vladimir Putin, a exprimat rezerve faţă de modul �n care Eduard Şevarnadze a fost forţat să predea puterea. Relaţiile dintre Moscova şi Tbilisi au fost �ncordate �n ultima vreme, Rusia acuz�nd de mai multe ori Georgia, că �i sprijină pe rebelii ceceni.

Oficialii Uniunii Europene susţin că �n Georgia trebuie să aibă loc alegeri democratice, alegeri care să readucă un climat de �ncredere �n ţară. Preşedintele �n funcţie, Nino Burjanadze, a anunţat că alegerile vor avea loc �n termen de 45 de zile. Se aşteaptă ca noile autorităţi de la Tbilisi să ceară Statelor Unite un ajutor de 5 milioane de dolari pentru organizarea alegerilor. Liderul opoziţiei, Mihail Saakaşvili, a anunţat deja că va candida pentru funcţia de preşedinte.

[redneck]

A moment of truth
Nov 27th 2003 | MOSCOW AND TBILISI
From The Economist print edition

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2245948

[redneck]

The Wall Street Journal,
As of Tuesday, January 20, 2004

COMMENTARY

Don't Let Georgia Fall off the Map

By MART LAAR

TALLINN, Estonia -- Georgia only seems far away. For Europe, most countries are too easily dismissed as far away. This blindness got the Continent into more than one war, and could bring trouble again in the Caucasus. In the modern world, no one can survive in isolation, and Europe's future today depends on countries like Georgia that only look to be beyond the horizon.

A decade ago, my own country seemed far away, too. This spring, Estonia joins the European Union and NATO. Georgia also has a long European heritage. It was part of the Hellenistic world and Roman Empire before succumbing to Russian rule and then, after a brief spell of independence, Soviet conquest. Over the past dozen years of troubled independence, Georgia has been beset by civil war, political conflict, misery and corruption.

After last month's peaceful "rose revolution" forced out President Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgians this month enthusiastically elected a young, Western-educated lawyer as president. Mikhail Shaakashvili offers Georgia a new, possibly last, chance to bring his country back into the West. A lot is at stake. His people are counting on him to bring stability -- as is the U.S., which cares about strategic energy routes that pass through Georgia.

Some people have compared Georgia's new young leaders to the "Pro Patria" government of 20- and 30-something reformers in Estonia in 1992, whose radical free-market program made the smallest of the Baltic countries one of the most successful transition stories in former Soviet empire. There are indeed similarities between Georgia now and Estonia then, beyond our size and recent historical experience.

In 1992, Estonia was economically ruined and the morale of our people sapped. Shops were empty, forcing people to line up for hours to buy rationed bread and milk. The currency (the old Soviet ruble) was worthless. Industrial production declined more 30% in two years after independence in 1991. Inflation was above 1,000% a year, and unemployment 30%. Estonia depended on Russia for energy and most of its trade. Russia was refusing to pull its troops out of the country. Armed extremist groups, on the left and right, as well as a separatist movement supported by Russia posed a serious threat to democracy in Estonia.

The bad news is, this more or less describes Mr. Saakashvili's predicament today. Back in 1992, many people were pessimistic about our chances too. But we survived. Through painful but decisive reforms, Estonia turned West. Today, according to the Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom, Estonia is the sixth-most-free economy in the world, ahead of all but two of its future EU partners.

Of course, Estonia isn't Georgia. Georgia has a different history and cultural heritage and sits in another part of Europe. The policies implemented in one country can never be carbon copied onto another. Each country must find its own way. But there are lessons from other transition countries that are highly relevant for Georgia.

From our experience, lesson No. 1 is to build the political foundations first and only then proceed with economic reform. Don't underestimate the importance of a new modern constitution and democratic legislature elected in free and regular elections. In some transition countries, the need for strong "rule of law" wasn't appreciated. That was a huge mistake. The best intentions can not match the importance of a sound and constantly improving legal environment. There will be no market economy without laws, strong property rights and a working judicial system. And to fight corruption, as the new Georgian president vows to, you can't trust people from the past. Old dogs don't easily learn new tricks.

The second lesson is summed up by a well-known advertising slogan: "Just do it." In other words, be decisive about adopting reforms and stick with them despite the short-term pain they bring. A radical reform program launched as quickly as possible has a much greater chance of being accepted than either a delayed radical program or a non-radical alternative that introduces difficult measures in a piecemeal fashion.

The third lesson is: Keep it simple. Most workable solutions are simple ones. Of course, achieving real change isn't easy. The new Georgian government must stabilize the economy and regain the confidence of financial markets. To do this, Georgia must cut its budget deficit and start to collect taxes.

The simplest way is to introduce a low proportional income tax, which is easy to collect and hard to avoid. The economy must be liberalized and opened to competition. As a weak state, Georgia can't collect custom duties anyhow; it's better to abolish them and turn Georgia to big free-trade area. State-owned companies must be privatized, but only after passing necessary laws and creating institutions. All this creates preconditions for foreign investment, which Georgia desperately needs.

By following this recipe, Georgia will have a chance to turn firmly toward the U.S. and Europe. Cooperation with the West, through NATO, is the only way to get the Russians to pull their troops out and restore the territorial integrity of this strategically placed country. The best way to fight the separatism that threatens Georgia's future, in other words, is successful reform. While the U.S. gave material help to the people's revolution and supports Georgia's independence, Europe seems all too happy to dismiss Georgia as "a far-away country." Now is the time to give real support. If done correctly, Georgia can become a model for the other troubled countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

But the best help Georgia can get today is clear encouragement to help itself. In the end, no one else can force reform on a country. Georgia's leaders don't have much time. Hopes are riding high. The window of opportunity to take the extraordinary steps that I've described lasts only a few months, perhaps a year. If Georgia doesn't take advantage of this momentum, it'll waste this chance. Then we'd all lose.

Mr. Laar was prime minister of Estonia in 1992-94 and 1999-2002.


Articolul tradus in l.rusa http://www.inosmi.ru/stories/03/12/01/3437/205129.html

[ciofu]

sa vedem ce face Saakashvili, care a promis ca conflictul cu Abhazia va fi solutionat definitiv, ceea ce eu personal nu cred

[Valdys]

sa vedem ce face Saakashvili, care a promis ca conflictul cu Abhazia va fi solutionat definitiv, ceea ce eu personal nu cred

:cry: la sigur ca avem un sevarnadze si in palatul prezidentzial de pe bulevardul domnitorului cel Mare si Sfint. nu stiu insa daca avem si un saakashvilly.

[ciofu]

Valdys, tu pe Vova inca pe departe nici nu poti sal pui macar alaturi de Shevarnadze. Shewa a fost vrei 30 de ani om sus pus, 30 de ani. Tu poti sati imaginezi ce autoritate a avut omu si ce experienta politica are el?

[Valdys]

cu atit mai mult tre' sa aiba curajul sa plece. il putem ajuta in caz de necesitate. dar pe cine punem in loc? avem noi un saakashvilly?

[ciofu]

Valdys ce sa facem aici povesti? Vova nu pleaca nicaieri, asa ca de discutat nu merita deloc.
In ceea ce priveste pe Saakashvili, degeaba face asa vanturi ca o sa solutioneze cu Abhazia....

[Valdys]

se poate sa rezolve, pentru ca este sprijinit de SUA si de europeni

[ciofu]

si Vova e sprijinit de SUA si de europeni si de toti, in afara de Rusia, si ce folos?

[Valdys]

si Vova e sprijinit de SUA si de europeni si de toti, in afara de Rusia, si ce folos?

chiar crezi ca Voronin are sprijinul americanilorm si europenilor? crezi ca aceastia su da gind sa primeasca in UE un stat care are la guvernare comunisti?

[ciofu]

sprijinul europenilor in solutionarea conflictului, nu sprijinul in aderarea UE

[redneck]

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2004

U.N., George Soros Aid Georgia Official In Corruption Fight

A(s)sociated Press

DAVOS, Switzerland -- Billionaire philanthropist George Soros and the United Nations are launching a trust fund to help Georgia's president-elect in his promised fight against corruption, a cornerstone of the revolution that toppled the country's post-Soviet leadership.

Mikhail Saakashvili, the key figure in peaceful demonstrations that brought down former President Eduard Shevardnadze in November, said the fund will provide Georgia with the money to pay government salaries and remove the temptation for bribe-taking and corruption.

"We are changing the rules of the game," the 36-year-old U.S.-educated lawyer said this week. "We kept stability for the last two months, and we really started to crack down on corruption, and to do things that are unthinkable in this part of the world."

Mr. Saakashvili said he told Georgia's business community that the government wouldn't seize their assets, but that the days of favoritism, monopolies, stopping cargo of competitors and avoiding taxes were over.

Many corrupt officials and businessmen went to Russia when he launched the anticorruption drive "and they will finance their campaigns against us," Mr. Saakashvili said.

Some people have been arrested for corruption, he said; the crime rate has decreased; and thousands of people who couldn't get passports because of corruption now have them. But unless money is found to pay higher government salaries, he warned, the clean-up campaign will falter.

The fund will be operated by the U.N. Development Program. The Georgian leader said his goal for the fund is $15 million. Mr. Soros and the UNDP are contributing $1 million apiece.

Copyright © 2004 A(s)sociated Press

[redneck]

Saakashvili's Task: To Be The Builder

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/01/23/002.html

[ciofu]

Eu ma uit ca americanii isi pun mari sperante in el, doar rusii cam nu prea sunt multumiti cu Saakashvili

[redneck]

Reuters
New leader vows to restore unity to Georgia
Sat 24 January, 2004 22:13
By Margarita Antidze

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=44 4811&section=news

Extras:

NO BATTLEFIELD BETWEEN SUPERPOWERS

Powell tried to play down the idea of U.S.-Russian rivalry for influence in Georgia, saying the U.S. military mission in the country was training Georgian forces to fight militants who attack Russia and should complete its work within months. And Saakashvili said he wanted to balance warm ties with Washington with a better relationship with the Kremlin. "We are a very small country and we need to survive in a very complicated geo-political environment. I don't want to turn this country into a battlefield between different superpowers," Saakashvili told foreign reporters in Tbilisi. "I am not pro-American or pro-Russian, I am pro-Georgian."

Powell said he would discuss Saakashvili's plans to deal with Georgia's two separatist regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and a third, Adzhara, that operates autonomously. "My trip is for the purpose of reassuring the president of our strong support for him and for his reform efforts," Powell told reporters as he flew to Georgia.

The United States needs a stable Georgia to ensure the smooth operation of pipeline that will run from Baku in Azerbaijan to Ceyhan in Turkey -- the main potential export route to the West for huge reserves of Caspian Sea oil.

[lia]

Noul Preşedinte al Georgiei, Mikhail Saakashvili, a depus jurăm�ntul

25.1.2004 16:34 Ora Rom�niei

Noul Preşedinte al Georgiei, Mikhail Saakashvili, a depus jurăm�ntul. Mikhail Saakashvili a promis să conducă Georgia �ntr-o epocă nouă, a unităţii, a relansării economice şi a luptei �mpotriva corupţiei. Printre cei prezenţi la ceremonie se numără Secretarul de Stat al Statelor Unite, Colin Powell şi Ministrul de Externe al Rusiei, Igor Ivanov. Noul Preşedinte al Georgiei - cu vederi occidentale - a insistat că doreşte ca şi Rusia să fie un partener şi un prieten al ţării sale.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/romanian/news2.shtml

[lia]

Secretarul de stat american �n vizită la Moscova

Colin Powell spune că va avea o discuţie deschisă cu preşedintele Putin

26.1.2004 5:20 Ora Rom�niei
Secretarul de stat american Colin Powell a sosit la Mocova, unde urmează să aibe o serie de �nt�lniri cu preşedintele Vladimir Putin precum şi cu alte oficialtăţi ruse. Powell s-a aflat anterior �n Georgia, unde a luat parte la investirea noului preşedinte Mihail Saakaşvili. Secretarul de stat american a spus că va cere Rusiei să-şi onoreze angajamentul de a-şi retrage trupele din Georgia. Colin Powell a mai precizat vă va avea o discuţie sinceră cu preşedintele Putin despre starea democraţiei �n Rusia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/romanian/news1.shtml

[ciofu]

astea sunt numai vorbe goale, sa vedem intai fapte

[lia]

astea sunt numai vorbe goale, sa vedem intai fapte

Ce "fapte"? Un razboi, ai in vedere?

In politica vorbele sunt fapte - asta nu intelege lumea de la noi. Insuhi faptul ca Powell s-a deplasat la Moscova pentru a discuta aceste probleme e... "fapte" - shi denota atentzia SUA pentru acea zona..... Ar fi fost bine sa fim noi in locul Georgiei.

[ciofu]

Eu sunt pacifist, totu pe cale pasnica sa se solutioneze

[Valdys]

Collin Powell a fost prezent la ceremonia de inaugurare a lui Saakashvilly, dar si ministrul rus de externe Ivanov. E ceva...

[Fox]

Rusii se baga peste tot, parca n-am sti....
Dar li s-a luat jucarica......aseara la HTB se se cam jeluiau sa Saakashvili s-a fotografiat doar cu Powell :lol:

[Valdys]

SUA cer retragerea armatei ruse din Georgia si Republica Moldova. Vezi www.reporter.md
:D

[ciofu]

Fox, georgienii ii urasc pe rusi intelegi, si rusii o merita. Asa ca eu sper ca Saakashvili a fi destept pana la capat si ia frecca macar cat de cat :lol:

[redneck]

Deocamdata Saakashvili pune accentul pe lupta cu coruptia. Sper sa se tina de cuvant.

[Fox]

Fox, georgienii ii urasc pe rusi intelegi, si rusii o merita. Asa ca eu sper ca Saakashvili a fi destept pana la capat si ia frecca macar cat de cat :lol:

Si bine fac. Ura noastra rusii o merita si mai mult. :tu_mori:

[ciofu]

Coalitia presedintelui Mihail Saakasvili, Miscarea Nationala Frontul Democrat, a castigat alegerile parlamentare care au avut loc duminica in Georgia, obtinand 78,6 la suta din voturi si ocupand toate locurile din Parlament, arata un sondaj de opinie realizat la iesirea de la urne, relateaza AFP.

Potrivit postului de televiziune Rustavi-2, celelalte 16 formatiuni politice care au participat la scrutin nu au reusit sa depaseasca pragul de sapte la suta necesar intrarii in Parlament. Alegerile au fost marcate de "grave nereguli" in provincia autonoma Adjaria, a declarat presedintele Comisiei Electorale Centrale, Zurab Siaberasvili.

TVR Stiri

[redneck]

Saakashvili’s Party to Dominate in the Parliament

http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=6594

Extras:

With 1,518,000 votes counted out of approximately 1,532,521 cast the ruling National Movement party garnered 67,02% and the moderate Rightist Opposition coalition, which unites two businessmen-backed parties – the New Rights and the Industrialists - 7,62%, while other parties failed to clear 7% threshold necessary to secure seats in the Parliament.

[redneck]

Jun 11, 5:04 PM EDT
Russia Complains About Georgia's Troops
By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press Writer
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RUSSIA_SOUTH_OSSETIA?SITE=APWEB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPL ATE=DEFAULT

[redneck]

Financial Times
July 9, 2004

HEADLINE: How to be a founding father Georgia's youthful president tells the FT that he is more comfortable being compared with Ben Gurion than JFK. He has a nation to build, and his is a country in a hurry

By ARKADY OSTROVSKY

When I meet Mikheil Saakashvili, we have a brief tussle about which language to speak. Saakashvili offers a choice of French, English, German, Spanish, Ukrainian, Georgian and Russian. My offering is more modest: Russian or English. Saakashvili chooses English, which he mastered while studying law at Columbia University and human rights at George Washington University. Both of us were born and bred in the Soviet Union; it would have been more natural for us to speak Russian. But the choice of language is symbolic - as are most things in relation to Saakashvili's behaviour. The Georgian president, who will visit London next week, is keen to project his country not as a former Soviet republic, but as a future European state. The EU flag is already flying over the Georgian parliament - though as a symbol of aspiration rather than reality, at least for now. Saakashvili wants to break with the past - and with his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze, who, in spite of his desire for closer links with Europe, Saakashvili describes as having had "a very Soviet taste and mentality".

While Saakashvili has no liking for the Soviet-era attributes of power and decorum, he has a penchant for theatrical, populist gestures. He refused to move into the presidential residence built by Lavrenty Beria, the Stalin-era head of Soviet secret police and, like Stalin, a Georgian. "It was too big for me, but it also had a very negative aura. Anyway, we are trying to minimise expenses.

"People compare my style with that of JFK, but in terms of substance, I feel much closer to Ataturk or Ben Gurion, or General de Gaulle - people who had to build nation states. Shevardnadze had a chance to become a founding father of the nation, but he missed that chance, so I now have this honour to become one, along with my friends."

Saakashvili's friends, many of whom are now his ministers, are often in their mid-30s, western-educated, and have no nostalgia for the Soviet past. His 37-year-old national security adviser - Gela Bezhuashvili - was a fellow student at George Washington University who had to interrupt his studies at Harvard's John F. Kennedy school of government to take up the post. His executive assistant, Natalie Kancheli, studied social psychology in the US and worked at a contemporary art fund in London before being tempted back. Saakashvili also recruited a former Salomon Brothers banker, Giga Bedineishvili, as his economics adviser, and a former French diplomat and ambassador to Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, as foreign minister. The bloodless rose revolution was not so much a political change as a generational one. Now 36, Saakashvili is still the youngest president in Europe. He is the first truly post- Soviet leader shaped by the period of perestroika and glasnost that was initiated in the mid-1980s by Mikhail Gorbachev and, ironically, by Shevardnadze.

Over the past six months, Saakashvili has moved with breakneck speed. He regained control of Adjaria - a renegade region on the Black Sea - removing Aslan Abashidze, the warlord whose family had ruled the area for centuries. He arrested a large number of mafia bosses and corrupt officials, including Shevardnadze's son-in-law, and demanded they pay back what they had stolen. "We were elected on the anti-corruption ticket and people saw that we are doing what we had promised," he says. He made sure that people saw - on television - armed men in black masks bursting into offices to round up former government officials. The arrests, often carried out without due legal process, raised concerns in the west about Saakashvili's respect for law, and his populistic style. "Some people criticise us, saying this is an abuse of human rights," he says. "Of course we need to make our police more respectful of the rule of law, but this will take time, and we need to act now."

For all his populism, Saakashvili has a pragmatic side. Many corrupt officials were released in exchange for paying back large sums of money. Shevarnadze's son-in-law was released after paying Dollars 15m to the treasury. "I would rather have a mafia boss outside a prison but without money than inside a prison but with money, although the best solution would be to have them in prison and without money. But that is not always possible," he says.

To reduce the incentive to take bribes, Saakashvili cut the numbers of traffic police, tax and custom officials and increased the pay of those who stayed. "We started to collect taxes and people started to get their salaries and pensions on time - this was unthinkable two years ago."

But Saakashvili knows that unless he can revive the economy and improve living standards, he will lose support as quickly as he had gained it. "The Georgian public is not very tolerant. They are already asking why the salaries are so low," he says.

What Georgia needs is investment, and the president is desperate to promote the message that the country is open for business. A few years ago doing business in Georgia without knowing someone high up was impossible. Now, he says, the rules have changed. "In the past to be successful you needed to know Shevarnadze's son-in-law; now you just need to observe the law," he says.

Yet the president knows that even with the change of investment climate, western companies or tourists are unlikely to flock to Georgia. His best hope is Russian money. He recently appointed as economics minister Kakha Bendukidze, a Georgian-born Russian businessman. Russian oligarchs, under pressure from the Kremlin, are talking - only half-jokingly - of moving to Georgia. "Russians have a lot of sympathy for Georgia at the moment. But the most important things for us right now is to avoid the bear hug of Russia, and to have a tender relationship. There is a big difference between a bear hug and tenderness."

Saakashvili is less keen on Russia's political and military presence in Georgia. Over the past 15 years Georgia has had little to thank Russia for. Fifteen years ago Soviet troops killed innocent Georgian civilians demonstrating for the republic's independence. Russia had also played a dubious role in Georgia's conflict with Abkhazia supplying arms to Abkhaz separatists, fanning the conflict. "Russia played a very bad role here."

He makes no secret about his own allegiance. "If you ask Georgia to choose between the west and Russia, it is obvious that it will choose the west. That is what Russia should learn: not to ask the question. Culturally Georgia is very close to Europe. We are a Black Sea nation whose people identify themselves with Europe, with Mediterranea. We want to create a system that would be similar to European and western models."

But as the recent conflict in Adjaria has demonstrated, Russia still holds the key to Georgia's stability. One of the main reasons Saakashvili managed to avoid a military conflict was that Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed to shelter the ousted warlord Abashidze: "Putin told me he would let us meddle in Adjaria, but he would not allow us to do the same in Abkhazia." Russia still has its military bases in Georgia.

At first sight, there is little love lost between Saakashvili, the US-groomed lawyer, and Putin, the former KGB officer. "We have such different backgrounds. I had problems with the KGB in my student years. They harassed me for speaking against Afghanistan; twice they almost arrested me for anti-Soviet activity." Yet both Saakashvili and Putin are pragmatic enough to get on - even if they could never fully trust each other. "I spoke to Putin for five hours and I found it very comfortable. We can deal with each other. I like his resolve, I am also very resolute."

Arkady Ostrovsky is an FT correspondent based in Moscow.


Articolul in l.rusa
http://www.inosmi.ru/stories/03/12/01/3437/211155.html

[imported_Hegemon]

Principalu sA te apuci! .. iaca s-o apucat omu de gospodArit!

Di la asha un om tAty Gruzia o sA prospere yn termeni extrem de scurtsi!

Shini ar pute sA vie deskis la putere la noi yn tsarA pt ca sA facA ceva asemAnAtor?

[redneck]

Georgia: EU Deploys 'Rule of Law' Mission
By Ahto Lobjakas

The European Union this week will formally open its first-ever "rule of law" mission to a non-EU country. The mission will see eight EU experts placed in key Georgian ministries and institutions. The mission's head, French judge Sylvie Pantz, said the group's aim is to advise Georgia on reforming its judiciary, criminal law, police, and penitentiary systems.

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/07/c5baf659-260d-41c0-9a18-19168e0a3303.html

Extras din articol: EU officials said on 16 July that no other former Soviet republic has expressed interest in hosting a similar "rule of law" mission.

[vali]

Tensiunile militare dintre Osetia de Sud si Georgia se amplifica
Atac separatist in apropiere de Achabeti Marti 20 Iulie 2004


Noi confruntari s-au inregistrat, duminica seara, intre fortele georgiene si cele ale republicii separatiste Osetia de Sud, in pofida protocolului semnat, joi, de cele doua parti, destinat solutionarii pasnice a conflictului, a informat postul georgian de televiziune, citat de AFP.
Schimburi de focuri au fost semnalate in apropierea localitatii Achabeti, situata langa linia de frontiera, a anuntat canalul de televiziune Rustavi 2. Atacul a fost lansat de fortele din Osetia de Sud si a vizat localitati controlate de trupele georgiene, insa nu s-au inregistrat victime.
Pe de alta parte, in cursul zilei de duminica, militari georgieni au confiscat un camion din Osetia de Sud care transporta munitii de razboi si l-au retinut pe sofer, a declarat ministrul georgian de interne, Irakli Okruasvili. Camionul transporta trei obuze antitanc si se indrepta spre regiunea Dzhava, unde sunt stationate trupele din Osetia de Sud, a precizat el.
Ministrul georgian de interne i-a acuzat pe militarii din contingentul rus de mentinere a pacii ca au incercat sa-i impiedice pe soldatii georgieni sa opreasca vehiculul si sa-l retina pe sofer.
Situatia din regiune este extrem de tensionata de mai bine de o saptamana. Osetia de Sud a informat ca mai mult de 200 de militari georgieni au intrat pe teritoriul sau, insa Tbilissi a negat acest lucru.

Un articol de Razvan Scaesteanu

[redneck]

EURASIA DAILY MONITOR
Volume 1 Issue 55 (July 20, 2004)

COMMENTARY: CHECKPOINT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

By Andrei Piontkovsky

http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=401&issue_id=30 21&article_id=2368273

[redneck]

Jul. 15, 2004 - At a July 14 Jamestown Foundation luncheon event, “The Crisis in South Ossetia: A Test of Russia’s Conduct”, Jamestown senior fellow Vladimir Socor addressed the escalating conflict in South Ossetia and delivered his recommendations to all parties involved in the negotiating framework and the U.S. policymaking community.
http://www.jamestown.org/news_details.php?news_id=56

EURASIA DAILY MONITOR
Volume 1 Issue 57 (July 22, 2004)

COMMENTARY: POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A POLITICAL SOLUTION IN GEORGIA'S REGION OF SOUTH OSSETIA
By Vladimir Socor
http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=401&issue_id=30 24&article_id=2368294

[redneck]

Putting out more flags
Jul 22nd 2004 | SUKHUMI, TBILISI AND TSKHINVALI
From The Economist print edition

Mikhail Saakashvili is using his international connections, as well as traditional tokens of authority, to put Georgia back on the map
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2946181

Articolul tradus in l.rusa
http://www.inosmi.ru/translation/211533.html

[redneck]

Articolul lui V.Socor din Wall Street Journal
"The Separatist International"
July 23 2004

in l.rusa
http://www.inosmi.ru/translation/211519.html

[redneck]

LA Times
October 31, 2004

Georgia Grows Impatient With New Regime

The president's clashes with Russia concern many, who wish he would focus on tackling low wages and high unemployment.
By Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writer


TBILISI, Georgia — The old white Zhiguli fairly flew down the highway, skimming precariously over the potholes as Garri Nersesov clutched the wheel and declared victory in the war on corruption.

"There's no police!" he proclaimed, waving a hand — when he mustered the nerve to take it off the wheel — toward the empty roadside. "It used to be, you had a policeman sitting under every bush. I could never drive this fast…. They would stop you and rob you!"

Score one taxi driver on the side of President Mikheil Saakashvili's drive to end the tyranny of Georgia's notoriously corrupt street cops. Half the nation's police force — nearly 15,000 officers — was fired earlier this year. Those remaining got jaunty, American-style police uniforms, new Volkswagen Passats and salaries high enough to help resist the urge to collect on-the-spot traffic fines.

Saakashvili was elected after Georgians flooded the streets last November and ousted President Eduard A. Shevardnadze in an uprising known as the "Rose Revolution." In less than a year, Saakashvili has succeeded in slashing the state bureaucracy by 35%, wresting back the breakaway region of Adzharia, raising pensions and nearly doubling the nation's tax and customs revenues.

But the brash 36-year-old with the boyish, pudgy cheeks and a Columbia University law degree also has engaged in some brinkmanship with neighboring Russia. He's finding it increasingly difficult to convince his constituents and the world that the dysfunctional Caucasian backwater he inherited can be transformed overnight into a prosperous democracy by the force of his own audacious determination.

Disappointment fueled by impatience is on the rise. Almost daily, protesters take to the streets over low wages and the sale of state-owned factories to companies abroad. Moreover, the government — which swept to power under the banner of democracy — faces challenges to its human rights record.

Police have broken up at least three demonstrations since July and jailed a former state audit official who was allegedly tortured after his arrest. In the town of Gori, a respected newspaper editor who published articles critical of the Saakashvili-appointed governor was arrested. He says a packet of drugs was shoved into his pocket.

For many, disillusionment with the new Georgia is as simple as being as poor now as they were a year ago. Worse, prices have escalated sharply in the last few months, and many worry that Saakashvili's tough talk against Russia has hurt their chances to sell goods there.

"It's damned bad," said Yuri Koloskov, a 57-year-old shoe repairman who was an engineer before the collapse of the Soviet Union and Georgia's subsequent independence. "Whatever he promised us, he delivered nothing. I'm not against being friendly with America, but we mustn't forget that ordinary people need a market to sell their stuff, and our market is Russia. As long as we have tense relations with Russia, we'll see nothing here."

Gyorgy Dzhangidze, a college economics student, said he and his friends didn't expect to find a job paying more than $400 a month. "We were fighting for him in Rustaveli Street. And it's not that he failed us," he said. "But we didn't see the results we expected."

Saakashvili's team, many of them also young, U.S.-educated professionals, said they realized their time to turn the country around was short.

"We understand now that the honeymoon is over. We realize every single day how hard it is to run a small country in this part of the world," said Georgia's national security advisor, Gela Bezhuashvili. "The revolution gave people hope, but nobody talked to them about what democracy is, what independence is, how much it costs."

After his stunning electoral victory in January with 96% of the vote, Saakashvili dismissed several ministers and other senior officials suspected of corruption and declared his intention to end the de facto secession of the pro-Russian regions of Adzharia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

By May, the young president had sent Adzharia's feisty strongman, Aslan Abashidze, packing to Moscow; in the process, he regained access to the busy Black Sea port at Batumi and its millions of dollars in revenues.

Next, Saakashvili set his sights on Abkhazia and South Ossetia, virtually independent since conflicts frozen in the early 1990s. There, he hit a brick wall — entrenched Russian support and a population viscerally opposed to union with Georgia quickly ignited new conflict.

Seventeen Georgian soldiers died in clashes in South Ossetia after Saakashvili closed down a booming $20-million annual trade in Russian goods smuggled through the lawless region. In Abkhazia, where thousands of Russian tourists spend their summers at low-budget Black Sea resorts, Saakashvili threatened to sink Russian tour boats.

Russia has been doing its own share of blustering. After the terrorist seizure of a school at Beslan, Moscow declared that it was prepared to launch preemptive strikes against terrorist refuges. In view of Russia's frequent complaints that Georgia shields Chechen rebels in the remote Pankisi Gorge, most took the declaration as a thinly veiled threat to bomb Georgia.

The newly assertive Georgian president clearly has Moscow worried.

"He is extremely popular, and while he is popular, he fancies himself invincible. He destabilizes the situation with his simplistic moves, scoring again and again," Gleb Pavlovsky, an analyst close to the Kremlin, told the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. "It means that Russia will have to stop this man sooner or later."

The prospect of a new war in the Caucasus also would have provoked unease in the U.S., which last year spent $20 million on democracy-building programs in Georgia and is Saakashvili's biggest international booster.

At home, Saakashvili still enjoys a confidence rating of more than 80%, according to a poll two months ago by the GORBI Sociological Survey, and many Georgians say they are proud of their tough new president.

"Of course we support him. One hundred and fifty percent," said Lasha Chechua, an unemployed gas industry engineer.

"If he needs to go to war in South Ossetia, people must understand that this is Georgia's territory, and this whole conflict was created by a third party, Russia."

"We're up to our ears in debt," his wife, Tsetsino, said.

"But that's not Saakashvili's fault. Everything was destroyed when he came to power. There was nothing. Now, we need time. He needs time."

Yet how much time is required to turn around a nation with 17% unemployment, falling living standards and an industrial output barely a quarter of what it was in 1991?

"Take me as an example," said a mathematician at the Academy of Sciences, who declined to give her name because she feared losing her job.

"The average salary is 30 to 40 lari [$17 to $22] a month. I earn 45 lari [$25]. I pay about 25 lari for electricity, 2.43 for water. Gas is 15 lari. So how can you survive? And prices for all products are going up catastrophically? It was bad under Shevardnadze, but it's getting to be worse."

For some of those who stood with Saakashvili last November demanding a more accountable government, there is a sense of urgency — the new government, they say, must be held to its commitment to democracy, before the authoritarian habits that are so entrenched in most post-Soviet republics are allowed to slip in.

A Tbilisi organization, Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights, has compiled 72 cases of beatings of prisoners and other police abuses since the beginning of the year.

"The right to freely express yourself no longer exists. People have been thrown into prisons for participating in mass rallies," said Nana Kakabadze, head of the prisoners group.

"I think we are on the right road. We want to build a good, strong, free, democratic state," said the deputy speaker of parliament, Mikheil Machavariani. "Our partners are helping us with this, and our neighbors in Russia are very jealous of this relationship with the United States, probably because they love us so much.

"But they love us as a little brother, and we are not little brothers. We want to be equal partners in a big family."

For his part, Nersesov, the taxi driver, would be happy just to have a job. Ideally, he would like to work again as a water treatment engineer, as he did before the government stopped paying state salaries several years ago.

For now, Nersesov is still pointing the Zhiguli down Georgian highways, and the highways, he points out, still have potholes.

[redneck]

EURASIA DAILY MONITOR
Volume 1 Issue 147 (December 15, 2004)

NEW GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT TO INCREASE STABILITY, CONSISTENCY
By Zaal Anjaparidze

[redneck]

Financial Times
Europe's third wave of liberation
By Mikheil Saakashvili
Published: December 20 2004 02:00 | Last updated: December 20 2004 02:00
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/4b7acc18-522d-11d9-961a-00000e2511c8.html

Traducerea in l.rusa
http://www.inopresa.ru/ft/2004/12/20/14:19:14/ukraina

[redneck]

Georgian President Reviews Accomplishments of 2004
http://www.jamestown.org/news_details.php?news_id=83