Translated material
Thorns and roses
The Georgian opposition promised to leave Saakashvili without a job
Today in the center of Tbilisi, on Rustaveli Avenue in front of the parliament building, the opposition is gathering a rally under the slogan “Georgia without a president!” Its participants will also demand that parliamentary elections be held not at the end of 2008, as provided for by the constitution, but in the spring. History repeats itself: exactly four years ago, on November 2, 2003, parliamentary elections were held in Georgia , falsification of the results of which led to the “Rose Revolution” and the early resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze.In March 2004, Georgia re-elected its parliament for four years . However, the ruling United National Movement decided to combine presidential and parliamentary elections and hold them at the end of 2008. The exact date has not yet been determined. The authorities apparently proceed from the fact that only the charisma of President Mikheil Saakashvili can save the collapsed rating of the “nationals”, which is why they plan to combine elections.
Oppositionists suggest that the model of a parliamentary republic is more suitable for Georgia. After all, all Georgian presidents, Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Eduard Shevardnadze, were overthrown from their posts. And now Saakashvili, as opposition conservative MP Kakha Kukava said yesterday, “can flee under the pressure of the people.”
The opposition promised to bring up to 100 thousand demonstrators to Rustaveli Avenue. Labor invited people to hold a general strike and attend a rally instead of work. However, the authorities are not asleep either. They blocked the highways connecting Tbilisi with the regions, making it difficult to transport dissent to the capital.
A representative of the united opposition (which is ten parties and movements), former Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Georgiy Khaindrava told Vremya Novostey that the authorities forced former presidential ally Irakli Okruashvili, who went over to the opposition to Saakashvili , to leave the country on Thursday night. The fact of his departure was confirmed. As initially assumed, he left for Paris, while his family remained in Tbilisi. Later, reports came that Okruashvili had gone to Munich for treatment.
According to Khaindrava, the authorities are still wary of incriminating evidence possessed by the former prosecutor general. Although in early October Okruashvili retracted the corruption charges he had brought against Saakashvili and his entourage, society does not believe this repentance, but the initial revealing statements. By the way, Okruashvili had no right to leave Georgia, as he is free on bail of $6 million during a two-month preliminary investigation. However, information appeared that a few hours before the flight, law enforcement officials handed him a passport with a Schengen visa and escorted him to the airport. Previously, Okruashvili promised the opposition to come to Friday’s rally. The representative of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Shota Utiashvili, yesterday denied information about the forced expulsion of Okruashvili. “The allegations that law enforcement agencies allegedly recommended Okruashvili leave the country for a while are unfounded. In fact, Okruashvili went to Germany for a medical examination at his own request,” he emphasized.
In order to understand the emerging situation on the ground, the United States sent an emissary to Georgia - Deputy Secretary of State Daniel Fried. He is taking part in the international forum “Building Eastern Europe”, and according to unofficial data, he will try to organize a dialogue between President Saakashvili and the opposition. And this is a familiar picture. Four years ago, a few months before the Rose Revolution, former Secretary of State James Baker, specially sent by Washington, spoke with Shevardnadze and the opposition in Tbilisi. Shevardnadze did not listen to his advice and was soon sent into early retirement. On Friday, the authorities will take some of the foreign participants of the forum on an excursion to the eastern Georgian city of Sighnaghi so that the opposition does not become an eyesore for the distinguished guests.
Moscow is closely following the Georgian events. The Russian Foreign Ministry said yesterday that “in conditions when mass rallies of the Georgian opposition are coming, it is possible that even more drastic steps can be expected from Mikheil Saakashvili to escalate the situation in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts and further complicate Georgian-Russian relations ": "The authorities are trying to resolve the crisis within the country by diverting the attention of the population from it through demonstrative actions in the foreign policy arena."