Poisoning death of prime minister stuns Georgia

International Herald Tribune
Friday, February 4, 2005

By Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania of Georgia, a youthful reformer
and ally of President Mikhail Saakashvili, died early Thursday in what
officials described as a bizarre, but accidental, poisoning.

Zhvania, 41, was asphyxiated by carbon monoxide apparently released by a
space heater in an apartment in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, that
belonged to a political acquaintance, Raul Usupov, the officials said.
Usupov, 25, a deputy governor from the Kvemo-Kartli region, also died.

Zhvania’s death stunned the country’s politicians and raised questions
about Saakashvili’s efforts to push through economic and political
reforms in the turbulent and impoverished country without one of his
most influential and popular aides.

“Georgia has lost a great patriot,” Saakashvili said at a meeting of
government ministers, according to a transcript provided by his office.
He added, “I have lost my closest friend, most trusted adviser and
greatest ally.”

Saakashvili later announced he would assume the duties of prime
minister, as well as president, though it was unclear for how long.

By law, he has a week to announce a replacement.

Georgia’s interior minister, Nano Merabishvili, said Zhvania arrived at
Usupov’s apartment around midnight Wednesday, according to news reports
from Tbilisi. About four hours later, after not hearing from Zhvania,
his guards broke into the apartment and found him slumped in a chair.
Usupov was found in the kitchen. There were no indications of violence
or foul play, Merabishvili said.

“It all happened suddenly,” he said, calling the death a “tragic
accident.” The death nonetheless gave birth to rumors and conspiracy
theories, despite the official version.

A member of Parliament, Alexander Shalamberidze, insinuated that the
death was part of a plot orchestrated by “certain forces” in Russia that
included the bombing of a police station in the city of Gori that killed
three this week. His statement prompted a pointed protest from Russia’s
foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.

A backgammon board was lying open on a table near an Iranian-made gas
heater. Portable gas or wood-burning heaters are common in Georgia,
where central heating networks are scarce, even in the capital.

The official Russian Information Agency reported that 45 Georgians had
died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the last three years.

Guram Donadze, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the heater
was installed two days ago and appeared to work properly. It appeared,
however, that the room lacked proper ventilation.

“There are many rumors, suspicions, various versions,” he said in a
telephone interview. “However, what actually happened was gas poisoning
– nothing else.”

Zhvania was a leader of the popular uprising in the autumn of 2003 that
toppled President Eduard Shevardnadze and swept Saakashvili to the
presidency.

He became prime minister barely a year ago and was a driving force in
much of Saakashvili’s efforts to establish order in the country’s
economy, government and foreign policy.

Like Saakashvili, he was once allied with Shevardnadze, but broke with
him and became an opposition leader, though one considered more
temperate than Saakashvili, who is 37. He often acted as a mediator in
Georgia’s tense disputes with two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, and the country that offers them succor, Russia.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said in a
statement that Zhvania “played a pivotal role in consolidating the
political life in Georgia and placing the country on the road to democracy.”

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, whose relations with Georgia have
cooled under Saakashvili’s presidency, expressed condolences in a
statement that called Zhvania “a champion” of friendly relations between
the two countries.

Zhvania, a biologist by education who joined the country’s Green Party
in the 1980’s, is survived by his wife and three children. He became a
chairman of the newly independent country’s Parliament in 1995, a post
he held until 2001.

He has been credited with recruiting Saakashvili into politics.

Alexander Rondeli, president of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic
and International Studies, said that Zhvania’s death would probably not
alter Saakashvili’s policies, but complicate his ability to govern.

“He was, I would say, the most important person, the most important
adviser of the president,” Rondeli said in a telephone interview.

“He was in charge of the economy, of investment. At the same time, he
was very active in foreign affairs. It is a big loss for the president
personally.”