GEORGIA’S PM GETS POISONED BY GAS WHILE PLAYING BACKGAMMON

TBILISI, FEBRUARY 3. ARMINFO. Georgia’s Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania
got poisoned by gas while playing backgammon in his friend Raul
Yusupov’s house.

Georgia’s Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili says that it was an
accident caused by gas escape from an Iranian gas heater.

Zhvania’s bodyguards found him in the drawing room while Yusupov was
in the kitchen. “They must have been playing backgammon,” says
Merabishvili.

The bodyguards immediately reported of the accident to their chief,
vice PM Georgy Baramidze, President Mikhail Saakashvili and the
prosecutor general. Investigation is underway.

ITAR-TASS reports that gas heater failure is a usual thing for Tbilisi
– dozens of people died of them there in the last months.

Interfax reports that Pres.Saakashvili has called an extraordinary
government meeting.

President of Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh says that Zhvania’s death will
not aggravate the situation in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict
zone. “This is Georgia’s internal affair and it is the task of their
police to investigate into the accident,” he says to Interfax.

NOTE: Zurab Zhvania was 42. He was biologist. In 1989 he led a party
of greens and co-chaired the party of greens of Europe. In 1993 he led
the Union of Georgian Citizens party supporting President Eduard
Shevardnadze. In 1992-1995 and 1995-1999 he got into the parliament
and was elected speaker. In 1999 he was reelected speaker but left the
post in 2001.

Before the Rose Revolution Zhvania was believed to be the key official
successor of Shevardnadze as president of Georgia. He was known for
his pro-western views and for regarding Georgian-Russian relations as
“close to cold war.” In 2002 he led the United Democrats party. In Nov
2003 he was appointed Georgia’s Prime Minister.