Translated material
"Hawks" and "coquettes"
The “war party” won in the new government of Georgia
On Tuesday, the Georgian parliament will re-approve the government. 50-year-old State Minister for Conflict Resolution Georgiy Khaindrava became the only one from the previous cabinet who did not find a place in it. The formal reason for re-establishing the government was the requirement of the constitution. Last week, the president proposed transferring the Minister of Environmental Protection from the government to the Constitutional Court. This was the sixth personal change in the composition of the cabinet since the previous approval by parliament in 2004. And according to the constitution, after the government is renewed by a third, it must again receive parliamentary approval.In Georgia, the scandalous news about the dismissal of Khaindrava, who had worked there since March 2004, from the government overshadowed even Mikheil Saakashvili’s refusal to participate in the informal Moscow CIS summit at the end of last week. As political scientist Paata Zakareishvili told Vremya Novostei, with this resignation “it became obvious that the Georgian authorities were heading towards an aggressive policy towards Abkhazia and South Ossetia.” “In July there was already a significant personal change - from Tbilisi to New York Irakli Alasania, who previously worked as the President’s special representative for Abkhazia, was removed from the post of permanent representative to the UN. Now Georgiy Khaindrava has been dismissed, that is, the most liberal politicians have been removed from the settlement process. Such a policy could lead to a new military confrontation with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Power will be wasted. energy to intimidate Abkhazians and Ossetians, because for some reason he believes that they can be intimidated. But this is futile, it will be marking time,” believes Mr. Zakareishvili.
In the unrecognized republics, Mr. Khaindrava's resignation was regarded as an alarming signal. Vremya Novostey's sources in Sukhumi and Tskhinvali admit that the former minister of state defended Tbilisi's position in the negotiations, but it was possible to conduct a constructive dialogue with him as an official for whom forceful methods of settlement are unacceptable.
The Georgian opposition claims that Khaindrava was a “black sheep” in the cabinet. In the fall, he was the only one who spoke out in support of Salome Zurabishvili, when, due to disagreements with the president’s entourage, she was dismissed from her post as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In early July, Georgy Khaindrava said that if he were the Minister of Internal Affairs, he would resign because of the scandal associated with the murder of a banker in which officials of his department were involved.
Finally, last week, Mr. Khaindrava admitted that the military police of the Georgian Ministry of Defense violated the Vienna Convention for the Protection of Diplomats by detaining a Russian embassy car on July 16 on the way from Tskhinvali to Tbilisi. General Valery Evnevich, who was in that car, was called a “provocateur” by Georgy Khaindrava, but this did not stop Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili from sharply advising the minister of state to “pack his baggage” and leave the government if he does not adhere to command principles. The Minister of Defense called the statements of “covering up swindlers” Khaindrava (“Okruashvili considers Evnevich a swindler”) “political coquetry” and “posturing.”
After this, it became obvious that the president would have to choose between two cabinet members. Mikheil Saakashvili chose 33-year-old Irakli Okruashvili, who is considered the leader of the “war party” and the “main hawk” in Georgia. But the reasons for the dismissal were not even explained to State Minister Georgiy Khaindrava. He learned from journalists about the resignation and that he had to hand over matters to a new appointee, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (overseen relations with Russia) Merab Antadze. Okruashvili's position will be strengthened by the fact that this week the Georgian parliament will increase the military budget by $123 million, bringing defense spending to an unprecedented $350 million for the country in 2006.
Yesterday, in an interview with Vremya Novostei, Georgy Khaindrava, commenting on rumors about his possible move to the opposition or return to directing, said that he “has not yet decided what he will do.” The former minister of state noted that the president has not yet wanted to meet with him to explain the reasons for his dismissal. Georgian media write that the president is increasingly becoming a hostage to his own circle. But the retinue knows how to butter up the king. For example, Deputy Chairman of the Legal Committee of Parliament Georgy Bokeria, considered the ideologist of the current government, found a non-trivial explanation for the failure of plans to organize bilateral negotiations between the presidents of Russia and Georgia at the CIS summit. “The President of Russia, to put it mildly, feels uncomfortable in public discussions with the President of Georgia. To be precise, Vladimir Putin is afraid of these speeches, which create serious problems for him both at the international level and within the country,” said Georgiy Bockeria.