Translated material
Hunger games
In Tbilisi, on the birthday of Saakashvili, a mass action of his supporters took place. The opposition called for a collective hunger strike
Two columns, under the old military marchs, Saakashvili supporters went to a rally on his birthday, when the opposition promised the most massive of the shares in his support. They succeeded - in the city center is really crowded.
- And what is this music sounds? - I ask a guy sitting in an open part of a small truck from which a march sounds. -Is this some kind of military march?
“ No, this is a peaceful protest, ” the guy answers automatically.
-The action is peaceful, and the march from the "three hundred Aragvins"? - I ask him.
- Well, this is a classic! - he answers.
Both countries connected by legends about Jason, Medee and Prometheus - Greece and Georgia - have their own "three hundred Spartans." In Georgia, the main of the stories of the heroic epic with a detachment of three hundred warriors opposing the countless orders of the invaders took place in the Aragvi River Valley. Hence the legend, and the margin of the same name, and even a whole metro station, called this name.
So, to the march music and cries "Misha, Gilosav!" (Something like “Happy holiday, Misha, happiness to you!”), One of the largest rallies for the entire time of the two-month confrontation of Natsu and Koti-the party of the Bijanishvili billionaire, took place on the birthday of the third president.
“ They are there with Georgian surnames, but they are not ours.” They are kagbashniki! - exclaims Kutaisan Umar Liklikadze, nodding towards Ivanishvili’s residence - glass buildings, reminiscent of a greenhouse, drowning in a botanical garden, rising above the city.
On that day, the opposition announced a plan of further actions - a universal hunger strike until their leader is released.
The next day, on Wednesday, the culprit of the celebration substantiated the need for a hunger strike:
“I would like to remind those who consider the hunger strike as a marginal and ineffective form of protest, that thanks to the mass hunger strike, Mahatma Gandhi achieved independence for India, and Mandela and his associates overthrew the apartheid regime.”
Now I realized what was the move with the three hundred Spartans - the leaders of protest that evening said that three hundred volunteers would be gained, which would follow the example of their leader.
- What are you doing here, what? - asks another supporter of Saakashvili, who introduced himself to the Soso from the Caspi - a small town next to Gori, where the main prisoner of the country is treated in a military hospital after a month and a half hunger strike.
“ Interesting, ” I answer diplomatically. - All this is interesting.
- What are you interested in? That the country is poor, that there is nothing, that people are on the verge? What are you interested in? Here's what to do: go to rob or go to kill? What? - Soso dissolves in a crowd walking to parliament.
- Is that all? This is all? - asked Nick Melia, the head of a single national movement (in the common people - “Nazi”), one of the opposition journalists immediately after the announcement of a new tactic.
The opposition was clearly waiting for more: point blocking roads and detaining activists near the building of the local security service - all this already began to resemble a kind of revolution.
But the revolution did not happen.
In response to the announcement of the global hunger strike, representatives of the ruling Georgian Dream party said that Saakashvili himself demanded that they refuse food, threatening them to block the financing of protest and the media themselves.
Meanwhile, the scenes of Georgian politics continued on many hours of negotiations at various levels - from presidents to family consultants.
Today, on Thursday, the court resumed - a hearing in the case of the tight dispersal of the opposition during the reign of Saakashvili.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky petitioned the liberation of Misha from custody of his Georgian colleague. In the hands of Salome Zurabishvili - a gold key to the cage of the main prisoner of the country, but in the issue of amnesty Saakashvili, it remains ironically adamant.
Not by telephone, but personally, the legendary Uncle Saakashvili - Timur Alasania, called the yellow press gray cardinal of their family, appeared in Tbilisi.
Alasania, living in New York, publicly called himself an adviser to Saakashvili, and himself-one of his main teachers. “I was always with him. And I will be with him. But not in official quality, ” he said a few years earlier in a provocative interview published on NTV.
This week, Timur appeared in Tbilisi, saying that he would try to meet with his nephew.
In an interview with local media, Timur Alasania voiced dissatisfaction with Saakashvili allies, discontent, bordering on despair:
“The party created by Saakashvili does everything possible, but does nothing impossible,” he said.
By the end of the week of Alassania, there was no longer in Tbilisi:
After calling for interrogation related to suspicions of international financial fraud, the uncle of the Third President disappeared from the city, affecting the sick.
“ Intrigues, ” says the Tbilisan Goga, watching the photo printing from a small salon, hiding in the area of the 300 Aragvvians metro station. “ The struggle of intriguers with degenerates, ” he grins. - And without any clarification, it is clear which of them is who!
- What a Georgian he was - forced them to starve on his own birthday! - Ironically stated one of the leaders of the "Dream" Archil Talakvadze, who himself had recently become a victim of intra -party intrigues and lost his post.
Protest shares moved from the city center hung with garlands to the outskirts - at the request of the opposition themselves, so as not to spoil the children of the Christmas tree.
On Thursday morning, giant tents installed near the headquarters of the Nazi, where three hundreds of Misha’s supporters would have to starve, still looked half empty. The admission to them was limited by the opposition itself: by calling a visit to the starving risky for their health, the organizers of the protest made it an action for their own.