Billion Dollars from Dick Cheney

Saakashvili found money and a conspirator

Georgia will receive $1 billion in assistance from the United States to overcome the consequences of the Caucasian conflict. This decision was announced yesterday in Tbilisi by 67-year-old Vice President Dick Cheney, who arrived in Tbilisi from Baku, where on September 3 he managed to discuss issues of transporting energy resources bypassing Russia. After negotiations with Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili, the guest left for Kyiv yesterday afternoon.

Georgia will receive more than half of this assistance before the end of 2008. “The free world has an obligation to help Georgia heal its wounds,” Cheney said, recalling that Georgia had already helped the “free world” by sending its soldiers to Iraq. After the start of the war in South Ossetia on the night of August 8, the Georgian leadership recalled two thousand of its “commandos” from Iraq, throwing them into Tskhinvali.

Dick Cheney criticized Russia yesterday in Tbilisi and announced that “there are doubts that it can be an international partner.” He promised that the United States and its allies would do everything possible to protect the interests of Georgia." In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov only recalled that he well remembers Richard Cheney's speech in Lithuania on May 4, 2006. (The Vice President then spoke about democracy and sharply criticized Russia.) Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev called Dick Cheney “the main instigator of anti-Russian sentiments,” and the goal of all this is “the establishment of American control over the Caucasus, rich in oil and gas.”

The Georgian president looked very pleased after the negotiations with the American guest, but at a joint press conference, Mikheil Saakashvili still made a reservation about the need to negotiate with the “neighbors.” A couple of hours before Cheney’s arrival, the Georgian authorities decided to return to the previous visa service for Russian citizens. Saakashvili signed a decree according to which Russians will again be able to obtain visas at the Georgian border (it costs $30 for a 90-day stay). The Georgian Foreign Ministry explained to Vremya Novostey that the previous decision to cancel this possibility was made at the end of August during martial law, the regime of which was lifted on Wednesday, September 3. Our interlocutors called this a manifestation of “good will.”

Issues of consular relations between Russia and Georgia have yet to be clarified. But Russian embassy workers will definitely leave Tbilisi one of these days at the request of the Georgian side . This is not the first time in recent months that Russian diplomats have been forced to leave the Georgian capital. In the fall of 2007, Georgia expelled three embassy employees, suspecting them of having connections with the Georgian opposition, which at that time was holding protest rallies of thousands.

At the same time, 32-year-old Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, the middle son of former Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia , was named among the “connectors” with Russian diplomats. The oppositionist was accused of complicity in an anti-state plot for a coup and of espionage for Russia, but they were only able to detain him late the day before yesterday at Tbilisi airport. According to the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Tsotne Gamsakhurdia has been in Russia since November last year. Why he risked coming to Tbilisi, knowing about the serious charges, is unclear.

Mikhail VIGNANSKY, Tbilisi, Ivan SOLOVIEV