Press Digest 21.11.2014

Russia to Georgia: get Abkhazia and South Ossetia but Join the Eurasian Union

Situation aggravated in the National Movement party, Saakashvili and Bokeria clash with each other

Mikheil Saakashvili and Temur Alasania sold ammunition in Kodori Gorge to Armenians -- Tristan Tsitelashvili

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"In return for refusing to grab Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Kremlin might urge Georgia to join the Eurasian Union,” Chairman of European Democrats, Paata Davitaia, issued this statement while evaluating a new version of the deal that is to be completed between Russia and Abkhazia. However, as some experts claim, Russia can easily refuse to accept the Abkhazian version of the agreement as it does not specify whether the Russians will be able to get Abkhazia’s citizenship and purchase real estate in the region,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.

“They have reportedly adopted a balanced version of the deal on “Alliance and Cooperation” with Abkhazia and have offered De-facto President Raul Khajimba to sign the deal. It should be noted that the Abkhazian version of the agreement is intended to function for 10 years and the term can be extended by 5 years. As the deputies maintain, the deal drafted by the Kremlin was unacceptable since, according to them, some points of it contradicted Abkhazia’s de-facto constitution and precisely in the wake of this the necessity of drafting the Abkhazian version of the deal has surfaced. However, as Jemal Gamakharia, Secretary of Abkhazia’s Supreme Council, claims, the Russian side may reject the Abkhazian version of the agreement as it does not specify whether the Russians will be entitled to get Abkhazian citizenship and purchase immovable property in the region,” says the article.

“The Russians have already made it clear that at this point in time that they don’t plan to merge Abkhazia with Russia, and this means that they intend to grab the already occupied region in the future. Though, one “but” pops up here… the Abkhazian version emphasizes that the deal is being finalized between two equal and sovereign states. In addition, the deal does not include any point granting the Russians a right to obtain Abkhazian citizenship and purchase real estate there. Precisely this is what the Russians seek at this point – they long to assume full control of the territory,” maintains Mr. Gamakharia.

“Therefore, we do not rule out that Russia will ditch the Abkhazian version of the deal. After this, they will set to drafting another version of the agreement and only God knows what kind of bargain they will sew up in the end. The fact that the Abkhazian version of the agreement is set to function for 10 years and the term can be extended by 5 years does not draw any change. The Russian version of the agreement did not even specify the term of its functioning. As for the fact that the deal clearly says that Abkhazia is negotiating this agreement with Russia as an independent state this also means nothing much. By completing this deal, Abkhazia is just simplifying the process for Russia to accomplish its key task – gobble up this territory… However, because the Russian leader wants his citizens to get Abkhazian citizenship, no one knows whether or not he will accept the amended version of the agreement. From this point it follows that we will witness a slew of upcoming interesting events soon,” concludes the respondent.

Situation aggravated in the National Movement party, Saakashvili and Bokeria clash with each other

"The Nationals’ hope that an overwhelming number of people would stand with them by joining their demonstration was dashed, and in the wake of this, Giga Bokeria and Vashadze confronted each other shortly after the rally. Consequentially,now their office is in a state of anarchy and the members of the nationals are actively trying to work everything out with arguments and brawls. Misha is said to have reprimanded his team members for their inaptitude to deliver on their promise and gather a large number of protesters in order to gain the western leader’s goodwill,” states one of the leaders of “Free Generation,” Eka Daraselia, in her interview with the Alia gazette.

“Saakashvili wanted to show to the West that the present authorities don’t have a backbone and are unable to push the country forward; hence, if we follow his logic, Georgia’s former President wanted to ensure the western top officials that he is the only person who can bring about some positive changes in the country’s life. In this way hapless Misha bound himself with an immensely great responsibility; however, he’s failed to deliver the goods and this has allegedly shaken him up really seriously. Now he is pinning blame on his own team and is calling his former comrades-in-arms betrayers. Saakashvili is said to have rebuked Bokeria-Targamadze’s team which, from its part, passed the buck to Vashadze-Melia’s team and this has triggered confrontation between them,” alleges Ani Daraselia.

“Saakashvili is unlikely to support his team members in the future, especially after their unwarrantable failure – because of them Saakashvili could not win the West’s goodwill and favor. As you know Misha has always been concerned with his own fate and has always been ready to do away with everyone who stood in his way, including his team members. Rumors fly, that Misha is expected to make really strict decisions soon. It is also said that the financial resources that the members of his party should have paid to the protesters were misused, and these rumors have, obviously, added fuel to the fire and have exacerbated the already tensed situation in the party,” maintains the respondent.

“They allocated around 3 million GEL for the rally. A large amount of money was, allegedly, acquired by Saakashvili himself; however, along with it, black money is also said to have been spent on this rally. We have found out that the businessman who once put the representatives of the Georgian Dream Coalition in their bad books also actively financed the protest event by the Nationals. In addition, some people who only pose as the Dream Government’s advocates are actually in cahoots with the Nationals and they naturally helped them in organizing the demonstration of 15 November,” adds Ani Daraselia.

To the question why they are staging rallies outside the Nationals Office with a demand to remove this force from our political arena, the respondent answers:

“We are crusading against the corrupt force of the Nationals and thus we have nothing to do with the parliament. Why must we hold these demonstrations outside the building of the parliament? We have to work everything out with the Nationals who are sliding into their political grave, and we want to attend their burial ceremony along with our people. We will harass them in the future too; we will not allow these thugs to breathe freely.” concludes the respondent.

Mikheil Saakashvili and Temur Alasania sold the ammunition in the Kodori Gorge to Armenians – Tristan Tsitelashvili

"I will put it straight – our former President sold the Kodori Gorge and in order to gain more income, he sold the ammunition to the Armenians. Temur Alasania, who has really vast experience in arms trade, handled that issue. The total cost of the ammunition ran up to 1.5 billion GEL. And don’t be surprised that Saakashvili and his uncle made such a colossal amount of money – the Kodori Gorge literally abounded with the ammunition,” states former political prisoner, Tristan Tsitelashvili in his interview with the Akhali Taoba gazette.

“In the coming days, I will get accurate information regarding the ammunition hoarded in the gorge and will file this issue at the Prosecutor’s Office. In addition, we must look into the order from Vano Merabishvili, who urged the military to leave the gorge before the Russians overran it. If we believe him, he took this step to avoid bloodshed and massacre but can a right-thinking man deem this allegation to be trustworthy? In addition, how could he have known that the Russians would raid the gorge? If we offered any kind of resistance to them, we would have certainly retained the gorge. Thus, there is not even a shadow of doubt that Merabishvili planned everything beforehand and ordered our military to abandon the gorge before the enemies overran it. In this way, mendacious Merabishvili allowed them to take over the territory without even firing a single shot. They simply completed bargain with Saakashvili and his uncle in order to enable them to get hold of the arsenal kept here,” maintains Mr. Tsitelashvili.

“Arms were taken from the gorge by the Russian planes that landed there shortly after the territory was alienated. As for the customers, they were attracted by Temur Alasania in advance – he had completed a deal with the Armenians several days earlier. The issue of the lost ammunition was also resolved easily – they just announced that the arms were simply grabbed by the aggressors that attacked the gorge,” claims the respondent.

“They outlined this corrupt scheme in advance, and in order to realize it, they did away with Emzar Kvitsiani, who would have shaken heaven and earth to defend this territory; he would have never allowed them to cede it. If he was an archenemy of his own country as they want to typecast him, he would have never allowed the Georgian troops to enter the area. He embattled the gorge and made it inaccessible even for Russians. And obviously Saakashvili’s and Okruashvili’s people would have never managed to enter it if Emzari would have been against it. He simply refused to shot his own people and in this way proved that he is a real man and a real patriot who was always ready to defend his country,” concludes the former political prisoner.