Latest Articles about Georgia
SAAKASHVILI: DEFIANT AND READY FOR ACTION
Last Saturday evening, November 3, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili granted me a two-hour interview in his office, which is a few minutes’ walk from parliament. Demonstrators have been protesting in front of the building, demanding his resignation. On Friday, November 2, an estimated 50,000 protesters... MORE
GEORGIAN OPPOSITION ON A FREE RIDE, part two
Billionaire businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili has turned his Imedi Television, which broadcasts across the country, into a stronghold of political opposition to the government. Along with that move in 2006, he sold a 49% stake in Imedi TV to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. In October 2007,... MORE
GEORGIAN OPPOSITION ON A FREE RIDE
On Friday, November 2, at least 50,000 people (as estimated by most local and foreign observers at the scene) demonstrated in downtown Tbilisi for regime change and early presidential elections in Georgia. The number decreased to some 12,000 on November 3. The demonstrations were peaceful... MORE
CHECHENS AMONG RUSSIAN “PEACEKEEPERS” DURING INCIDENT IN GEORGIA
On October 30 an APC-borne Russian “peacekeeping” unit attempted to take control of the Ganmukhuri youth camp, situated within Georgian-controlled territory near the Georgian-Abkhaz demarcation line. Firing warning shots the Russian soldiers disarmed, bound, and beat bloody the three Georgian policemen who guarded the youth... MORE
GEORGIAN RADICAL OPPOSITION FANCYING REGIME CHANGE
Georgian opposition parties held demonstrations last week and this in Kutaisi and Batumi, respectively, and plan a mass protest rally in Tbilisi for November 2 during a high-level international gathering hosted by President Mikheil Saakashvili. This is the first wave of protest rallies since Georgia’s... MORE
POLITICAL GAME OF KING-MAKING IN GEORGIA
Restoring the monarchy in Georgia has become a declared goal of the United Opposition, an umbrella of numerous small parties. Their leaders have quickly moved from the slogan “Georgia Without a President”—meaning without President Mikheil Saakashvili—to the idea of monarchical restoration. This idea would remain... MORE
UN SECURITY COUNCIL EXPANDS UNOMIG MANDATE TO KODORI
The United Nations Security Council has approved a routine prolongation of the U.N. Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) mandate to operate in Abkhazia (United Nations, Report of the Secretary-General, October 15; Civil Georgia, October 16; Georgia Today, October 19-25). The Security Council’s resolution is less... MORE
WHITE STREAM: ADDITIONAL OUTLET PROPOSED FOR CASPIAN GAS TO EUROPE
White Stream, a project to transport Caspian gas via Georgia and the seabed of the Black Sea to Europe, was presented during the summit-level Energy Security Conference in Vilnius on October 10-11. This pipeline project could encourage investments in Caspian gas field development by diversifying... MORE
RUSSIA AND GEORGIA STILL TEETERING ON BRINK OF WAR
Last week Georgia’s former defense minister, Irakli Okruashvili, accused the country’s pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili of large-scale corruption and conspiring to kill Badri Patarkatsishvili, a prominent businessman. Okruashvili claimed that then-prime minister Zurab Zhvaniya, who was found dead in a friend’s apartment in 2005, actually... MORE
SAAKASHVILI AT UN: INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS FAILING ON POST-SOVIET CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York on September 26, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili cautioned the United Nations and other international institutions that their credibility is eroding as security actors and guardians of international law. Saakashvili noted that the United Nations and the OSCE... MORE