Translated material
Extraordinary offer
Badri Patarkatsishvili is ready to compete for the presidency in Georgia
Today, the internal political scandal in Georgia will continue , which attracted the attention of the entire world community and negatively affected relations between Moscow and Tbilisi. Consultations between the authorities and the opposition are scheduled in parliament, the Imedi television company will file a lawsuit over the destroyed equipment, and Russian diplomats declared persona non grata - Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ivan Volynkin, Advisor Pavel Solomatin and Third Secretary of the Embassy Alexander Kurenkov - will leave Georgia .Patriarch Ilya II blessed the negotiations on Saturday, after which representatives of the united opposition - Republican leader David Usupashvili, conservative MP Kakha Kukava and ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs Salome Zurabishvili - came to the Chairman of Parliament Nino Burjanadze. The latter, while shaking hands with the speaker, specifically told the cameramen and photographers: “Shoot, shoot.” There has been no political relationship between the two ladies for a long time, but now it has been decided to put personal ambitions aside. Then the negotiations were closed to the press, and upon completion, the parties announced that a detailed discussion of compromise options would begin on Monday.
The opposition intends to be well prepared for the early presidential elections on January 5 . And for this, he insists on lifting the state of emergency (which President Mikheil Saakashvili introduced on November 7 for 15 days) and stopping the persecution of his representatives. This is especially true for oligarch Arkady (Badri) Patarkatsishvili , who yesterday announced his decision to run for office. His statement says: “I will take part in the elections under the slogan “Georgia without Saakashvili means Georgia without terror.” If I am elected president, I guarantee that I will immediately take the initiative to hold a referendum on replacing the presidential form of government with a parliamentary one.” The 52-year-old businessman now travels between London and Tel Aviv. The Georgian Prosecutor General's Office suspects the oligarch, who promised to spare no money to liberate Georgia from the “fascist regime” of 39-year-old Saakashvili, of preparing a coup and attempting to violently overthrow the government. He faces 5 to 8 years in prison. If Patarkatsishvili does not appear at the Prosecutor General’s Office in the coming days, he will be put on the wanted list through Interpol.
The Central Election Commission of Georgia, when asked by Vremya Novostey about whether Patarkatsishvili could run for president in such conditions, asked to wait with comments until the official announcement of the election date. In order to hold them on January 5, Mikheil Saakashvili must announce his resignation 45 days before, that is, no later than November 22. The duties of the president will be performed by Nino Burjanadze, who was already acting four years ago. president after the early resignation of Eduard Shevardnadze.
The united opposition insisted that it did not intend to nominate Patarkatsishvili as a candidate. Moreover, as Republican MP Ivlian Khaindrava told Vremya Novostei, before the state of emergency is lifted, the united opposition is unlikely to name its chosen one so that the authorities do not discredit him. In addition, as long as news is published only on Public Television, it is impossible to conduct an election campaign. According to Mr. Khaindrava, “the situation is such that a second round of elections is quite possible, and if it wins, the opposition will transfer the country to the format of a parliamentary republic.” In this, her views coincide with the position of Patarkatsishvili. The opposition will also focus on a plebiscite on the timing of parliamentary elections, which will be held in parallel with the presidential elections. “I think there are high chances of holding parliamentary elections in April,” said the Republican parliamentarian. Official Tbilisi believes that it would be better to postpone the parliamentary elections until the end of 2008.
In turn, opposition politicians who were not members of the Joint Council did not wait for the state of emergency to be lifted and, along with Mr. Patarkatsishvili, declared their desire to participate in the presidential elections. This is, in particular, the leader of the New Right faction, 43-year-old David Gamkrelidze, and his peer, former economic adviser to Saakashvili, head of the Party of the Future, Giorgi Maisashvili.
In any case, the resumption of broadcasting of the Imedi television company, which was destroyed by special forces on November 7, is very important for the opposition. In an interview with the Resonance newspaper, the general director of the company, Bidzina Baratashvili, said that “up to 90% of the broadcasting equipment was destroyed, not only the archive was trampled, but also cassettes with cartoons. They even broke into the dining room and took away food, putting cutlets and mashed potatoes in bags.” Despite this, he promised that, upon returning to the air, Imedi would continue to broadcast “only the truth.”
Restrictions on the work of the media are also criticized by the international community, which continues to send emissaries to Tbilisi. “The reaction of the West was catastrophic for the image of Mikheil Saakashvili as a democrat,” says Ivlian Khaindrava. The representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Matthias Jorsch, said in Tbilisi: “When we learned that a state of emergency had been declared in Georgia, it shocked us. Events in Georgia significantly damaged her as a leader of democratic reforms. The dispersal of protesters and the cessation of broadcasting of television channels are facts that are absolutely unacceptable in a democratic system. The January 5 elections should be an example of compliance with the standards of the electoral process. Otherwise, trust in Georgia will be shaken. Georgia’s image is on the scales.”
Mikheil Saakashvili is trying to withstand the blow of the world community. He promised to lift the state of emergency “very soon”: as soon as he sees “that the country is restoring stability.” But this, he said, “will not happen on someone’s orders.” “I am not responsible to the foreign minister of some country, but to Georgia a thousand years from now.” However, according to experts, the authorities are being disingenuous in this case, since after the “Rose Revolution” of 2003 they were very sensitive to everything that was said and written about them in the West.
The Georgian authorities also pay attention to the comments of the Russian media. The Versiya newspaper published a selection of articles from leading Moscow newspapers (including Vremya Novostei) about the latest events in Georgia. Russia categorically denies any involvement and declares non-interference. And the Russian military is ending its presence in Georgia ahead of time. The last stage of the withdrawal of Russian military bases was planned for 2008. However, the commander of the North Caucasus Military District, Army General Alexander Baranov, stated that “before December 1, there will not be a single Russian soldier left in Georgia, not a single kilogram of materiel.”