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Saturday, 10.11.2007
Secret agents and electioneering in Georgia
Tbilisi. Are Georgia’s latest Rose revolutionaries a Kremlin plant? The state attorney at least has started prosecuting three opposition politicians on charges of espionage. In Tbilisi the state of emergency looks set to be prolonged.
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“These will be the most democratic and most transparent elections,“ promised Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili. After massive pressure from the opposition, he declared himself on November 11th ready to hold early elections on January 5, 2008.
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Democracy on hold
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But for the next 15 days at least, democracy will take time out in this Caucasian state. Saakashvili’s state of emergency was approved by Parliament. 149 voted for the state of emergency and the accompanying cancellation of freedom of press, freedom of opinion and freedom to gather. The opposition walked out prior to the vote.
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“The situation is normal and stable, but there is still some danger,“ said parliamentary speaker Nino Budshanadse. Her deputy specified that the danger was posed by the “interference of the Russian secret service.”
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Saakaschwili: “Russia is to blame for everything“
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Saakashvili has often played the anti-Russian card in the past. On November 8, he again accused Russia of espionage and of attempting a putsch.
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Moscow immediately rejected these accusations, stating that the crisis in Georgia was solely down to the incompetence of the Georgian leadership, said Michail Kamynin, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
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Georgian authorities to try opposition as spies and traitors
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In Tbilisi has now launched criminal proceedings against the leader of the Georgian Labour Party, Shalva Natelashvili, against the younger son of the former president, Sviad Gamsachurdia, Zotne Gamsachurdia, and against the businessman Badri Patarkazishvili. They are accused of espionage and an attempted putsch orchestrated by Russia.
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Whether the regime succeeds in discrediting the opposition in this way before the elections is unclear. But it is another way for Saakashvili to turn the heat up on his opponents.
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Despite Saakashvili’s concessions, there remains huge tension between the government and opposition, although a dialogue between leading dissidents and the regime has been initiated by the Church.
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Opposition’s search for a united candidate
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At the same time, the opposition has to decide on a single candidate to stand against Saakashvili on January 5 within a short period of time. Opposition members however ruled out the controversial former defence minister Irakli Okruashvili.
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He earned the reputation of a hawk with regard to the separatist republics of Abkhasia and South Ossetia. Following his resignation he raised hugely damaging accusations of corruption and murder against Saakashvili. After arrest, retraction and flight abroad, Okruashvili is now exiled from Georgian political life.
(ab/.rufo/Moscow)
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