Translated material
Lonely cowboy
Former Georgian Defense Minister launched presidential campaign
A new stage of political life has begun in Georgia. 33-year-old Irakli Okruashvili , transferred by President Mikheil Saakashvili from the post of Minister of Defense to the post of Minister of Economic Development on November 10, resigned exactly a week later. Now he can compete with Mikheil Saakashvili in the presidential elections in 2009 or, if they are combined with parliamentary ones, in 2008. “Okruashvili is ambitious, and I do not rule out that he will go into opposition to Saakashvili,” Ivlian Khaindrava, a deputy from the opposition Republican Party, told Vremya Novostey.Okruashvili’s excessive harshness unnerved both Moscow and Washington. According to Georgian media, shortly before his removal from the post of Minister of Defense, he asked the president for permission to begin preparations for fulfilling his promise to celebrate the New Year in Tskhinvali (Okruashvili announced this back in the spring), but was refused. They also say that as Minister of Economy, Okruashvili at some point would have to agree to Russia’s accession to the WTO, which contradicts his anti-Russian beliefs (remember his passage at the height of the “wine crisis” that the Russian market “will consume and feces").
This is already the third scandalous resignation in the “revolutionary” government of Georgia. In 2005, Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili left her post, and this year, State Minister for Conflict Resolution Giorgi Khaindrava left her post. But the case of Irakli Okruashvili is special. Ivlian Khaindrava noted: “There is an expectation in Georgian society that the problems of Abkhazia and South Ossetia cannot be solved without war. And that it is necessary to talk toughly with Russia. The charismatic Okruashvili personified these positions.”
No sooner had Okruashvili left the government than on Saturday in Sukhumi, US Assistant Deputy Secretary of State Matthew Bryza told the head of the unrecognized republic’s Foreign Ministry, Sergei Shamba, that “the Georgian leadership has a new approach to the settlement, the authorities have a deeper understanding of the inadmissibility of the use of force.” Before his visit to Abkhazia, Mr. Bryza visited Tbilisi, where he said that “it is necessary to start negotiations.”
Satisfied that Okruashvili was “out of the game,” the Americans are even ready to turn a blind eye to cooperation between Tbilisi and Tehran in the gas sector. They believe that Georgians are forced to do this afterGazprom announced an increase in gas prices starting in 2007: instead of the current $110 per thousand cubic meters, it will cost $230. “We welcome Georgia’s efforts to diversify the country’s energy market. We have our own policy towards Iran, but Georgia can make a free choice,” Bryza said in Tbilisi. Before the visit, he said that Gazprom was pursuing a “predatory policy towards Georgia” and “artificially increasing the price of gas.”
“Fortunately, Saakashvili still has smart advisers who told him to remove Okruashvili,” Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba told VN. - But whether this is cosmetics, or a gesture on the eve of the CIS summit, I still find it difficult to say. The main thing for us is the withdrawal of Georgian troops from the Kodori Gorge, without which negotiations will not resume. We told Matthew Bryza about this, since he does not deny that the Americans have certain opportunities to influence Georgia’s position.”
Okruashvili's departure is a sure sign that not all is well in Saakashvili's entourage. The Alia newspaper reported that in order to reduce the influence of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vano Merabishvili, the president is preparing to divide his department into the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security. According to the publication, Merabishvili will be entrusted with state security, and a deputy from Saakashvili’s United National Movement, David Kirkitadze, will be appointed Minister of Internal Affairs.
Republican Party leader David Usupashvili claims that Irakli Okruashvili was the only one in the Georgian leadership who could dare to say “no” to the president: “He was a lone politician, independent, with a high rating... I believe that the next target will be Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli” .
Okruashvili is not the only Georgian official who has worked in his new position for only a few days. On Saturday, the head of the Georgian International Gas Corporation, Irakli Chogovadze, announced his resignation, having just vacated the post of Minister of Economic Development for Irakli Okruashvili on November 10. But Chogovadze said that he remains on the president’s team.