Georgian leader asks businesses to help out grape farmers

Imedi TV, Tbilisi
31 Aug 06

Mikheil Saakashvili has asked private companies to buy 10,000 tonnes
of grapes each to minimize the effect of an "economic war" declared by
Russia against Georgia. In a speech broadcast live by major networks,
Saakashvili said he was instructing the prime minister to coordinate
the efforts to assist farmers in Kakheti province with the help of
five cabinet members. Saakashvili said by closing its market to the
Georgian wine Russia was hoping to cause a "total catastrophe" in
Georgia. In a fierce attack on Russia, he compared its leadership to
predators who "will eat you up if they smell blood". He also said that
during his recent talks with the Russians he was told that "the only
thing you can ask of us is not to make your situation worse than it is
today".

The following is an excerpt from report by Georgian Imedi TV on 31
August: [Presenter] The president of Georgia is meeting businessmen in
Sagarejo. We go live to [Mikheil] Saakashvili’s meeting with
representatives of the business community.

New Customs Code

[Saakashvili, in a vineyard] Greetings. I will turn around. You
probably have never seen the president make a speech in such an
unusual setting. I probably have never stood at such an angle to the
microphone.

First of all, I would like to welcome you all here in Kakheti. Thank
you very much for taking time. I know that this is holiday season.
Most of you look very refreshed. We are very pleased because this
means that in September our business will go back to rebuilding our
country with more vigour. It was important for me to meet you and
discuss what the state should do for you and what you can do for your
people, what you can do for your business, for your success and,
consequently, for Georgia’s future, Georgia’s success and every
Georgian’s well-being.

Before we move on to the main issues I’d like us to start with one
also very important issue. Tomorrow, on 1 September, the new Customs
Code enters into force. Customs duties on a vast majority of imported
products, apart from a majority of agricultural products and certain
types of products that can be produced in Georgia, have been
abolished. We do not want our products to face even more
competition. [Passage omitted]

Russia’s Georgia "policy"

While we have done everything we could, are doing and will continue to
do for you not to be intimidated by the Georgian state, there has
emerged a big intimidator. It is trying to terrorize you and the whole
of Georgia.

Unfortunately, it is our neighbour’s, Russia’s political
establishment. In recent years Russia has unfortunately had a clearly
articulated policy with respect to Georgia. I would like to believe
that this is the policy of only one part of Russia’s leadership. The
policy exists however. The policy is very straightforward, not to give
Georgia an opportunity to raise its head, get stronger and restore its
territorial integrity because Abkhazia must never go back into
Georgia’s fold, because Tskhinvali [South Ossetia] must never go back
into Georgia’s fold, because if Georgia is successful it will shatter
the world-view of the people who take these decisions. Hence, there is
a very clear policy in Russia aimed at changing the government and the
authorities in Georgia as soon as possible, before it is too late for
them. They are doing this in a very simple way. We should strangle
Georgia to make the Georgian people believe that it makes no sense to
fight for freedom, it makes no sense to fight for the restoration of
the rule of law in Abkhazia and that they should overthrow this
government, go down on their knees and crawl and kiss their toes and
give in once and for all.

They are not even promising anything in return. I know this because I
have had talks. Are you not in a bad situation, they ask. The only
thing we can do for you is not make it worse. Don’t ask for anything
else in exchange for talking to us, let alone Abkhazia or
Tskhinvali. You will never get them back.

Forget about them. Your main concern should be not to make your
situation even worse. This is what we are told. Everyone else is
offering help and assistance in the restoration of our territorial
integrity. These people are telling us to forget about our
territories. The only thing you can ask of us is not to make your
situation worse than it is today. Frankly speaking, this was the
essence of my recent talks with our partners in Russia. They are
saying this at every level. They have finally closed the
[Qazbegi-Zemo] Larsi checkpoint [border crossing]. They closed it not
only to us but also to neighbouring Armenia whose cargo went through
Larsi. Let’s do some things together, they are saying to Armenia. They
will of course fail to get anyone to agree to this but there are
attempts to put pressure on Armenia too in the context of
Georgia. They have completely closed their market to our wine. They
have closed their market to our products. They have closed their
market to between 90 and 95 per cent of products we export. The
situation is very clear. There are three components [to their policy].

The closure of everything is the first. Their satellite parties in
Georgia are the second. These parties have different names but it is
very easy to identify them. The people who are saying that the
Georgian authorities have closed the [Russian] wine market to the
Kakheti farmers are representatives of Russia. The people who are
saying that the Georgian authorities are unable to have the Qazbegi
checkpoint opened are representatives of Russia. Unlike some of my
predecessors, I am not talking about Kremlin agents and KGB agents and
so on. The people who echo these decision makers’ call for the
Georgians to moan that the closure of the border is the fault of this
government, that the closure of the market is the fault of this
government are their main allies in Georgia. It is these people and
the media outlets disseminating this. These networks will soon start
propagating views that the problems with the harvest are the fault of
the government.

"Predators"

No-one has ever succeeded by being a slave. I assure you of
this. No-one has ever achieved anything by bowing their head. No-one
has ever managed to restore their county’s territorial integrity or
create a proper economy by kissing someone else’s feet. Only self
respecting countries, countries like Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and
Latvia, which went through exactly the same problems and yet have
become Europe’s most successful economies, can succeed. I do not want
to name a number of other countries which do everything to please
these forces but nevertheless are beggars, as poor as they have always
been.

Therefore, our approach, my friends, is very simple. When will the
Russian wine market open? I can say this openly. They are
listening. There are 12 institutes in Moscow recoding every speech of
mine. I would like to say to spite them that as soon as they are
certain that Georgia hasn’t collapsed the Russian wine market will
open. [Passage omitted]

At a recent meeting Russian diplomats said they were surprised we were
not begging them over wine. We know that wine is a big problem for
us. Do you think they will open the market if we talk to them about
wine? They will conclude that they are doing the right thing and
should push even harder because these people have predator
instincts. They will eat you up if they smell blood. On the other
hand, every predator backs off when it senses that you are strong.

This is a predator instinct. Attempts to talk to a predator, persuade
it or make it feel remorse are in vain. A predator has no
conscious. It is guided by animal instincts. It respects power and it
knows who is afraid of it and who is not. Our task today is to say,
without any excess rhetoric, swearing or insults, that we shall do
what we have to do no matter what.

I would like to tell you that this year we have already had a nearly
50 per cent mechanical rise in exports to every country but
Russia. [As heard] If we manage to double the growth next year we will
reach the 2005 figures. Next year, we will be able to reach the 2005
figures, the highest figures since independence. This year we can
reach the 20m bottle mark. This is the figure for 2004, the first year
after the revolution. If we, together, overcome these problems this
year, if on our television they do not see – and I want to tell our
farmers, the farmers in Kakheti, brothers, we will have problems this
year. We will have problems because this was their plan. Their plan
however was to cause not just problems but a total
catastrophe. [Passage omitted]

Asks businesses to help out farmers

There is another thing I would like you to do. We should all help
Kakheti this year. I’d like you to do this. Where is [Tbilisi Mayor]
Gigi Ugulava? Come here, please. We are here in a beautiful
vineyard. I came with my bodyguards.

There also is a new police station in Sagarejo. This is very good. A
decision has been taken to – I have told you that no-one is forcing
you to do anything and no-one is threatening you. The state no longer
extorts money. I would like to extort little bit of money from you
today, for the first and the final time. I propose that your
companies buy 10,000 tonnes of grapes each in Kakheti this year. You
can feed it to your staff or make wine out of it and put your
companies’ names on it. Ugulava has a proposal.

[Ugulava] We have decided that the Mayor’s Office will buy twice as
much as the companies present here. [Passage omitted]

[Saakashvili] I should also tell you that an economic war has been
declared against us. This is nothing but an economic war. This is not
an ordinary situation. An economic war has been declared on us to make
us weak now so that they do not lose a bigger war later. Therefore, we
are setting up a kind of military command centres. I am instructing
[Zurab] Noghaideli, the prime minister, to coordinate rtveli [grape
harvest] in Kakheti. We have assigned ministers to four main
districts, five to be precise, Sagarejo, Gurjaani, Telavi, Qvareli and
Sighnaghi. There are problems with [the sale of] grapes in other
places too but these are affected more than others. We have assigned
ministers, Noghaideli, [Mikheil] Svimonishvili, the agriculture
minister, Vano Merabishvili, the interior minister, Irakli
Okruashvili, the defence minister and Zurab Adeishvili, the
prosecutor-general. Each of them is responsible for one district. The
government is not taking anything and is not setting the prices.

We cannot introduce military communism but we will give tractors to
people free of charge, we will assist in organizational issues and we
will facilitate the provision of loans by private banks to plants so
that the loss we incur in this year’s rtveli is as small as
possible. We will incur a loss but we must not make the enemy
happy. We must not let the enemy achieve its goal. They should see
that they are dealing with an organized nation as during the energy
crises. [Passage omitted]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress