GEORGIAN PRESIDENT FIGHTING FOR POLITICAL SURVIVAL
Arab Monitor
Aug 13, 2008
Italy
Tbilisi, 13 August – Yesterday evening French President Nicolas
Sarkozy left Moscow heading for the Georgian capital Tbilisi, where
he held a joint press conference with Georgian President Michail
Saakashvili. While Sarkozy was rather vague in informing the public
about the six-point ceasefire agreement reached in Moscow, limiting
himself to say Georgian forces would withdraw to their "permaent"
barracks and the Russian forces would withdraw to positions held
"before hostilities broke out", Saakashvili seized the momentum and
held a flaming speech vowing that Georgia would never renounce full
sovereignty over all of its territory, including the two disputed
provinces. The Georgian President’s declaration came in defiance
of reported agreements between EU, represented by Nicolas Sarkozy
and Russian President Medvedev, that Georgian troops would withdraw
completely from South Ossetia and Abkhazia and that their future
would be decided through a future referendum, to be held under
international auspices.
This morning, with the help of Western countries, the Georgian
President organized a huge media event in Tbilisi on the square in
front of the Paliament. While the public swayed Georgian and US flags,
provided by the government, Saakashvili made his appearance, surrounded
by hastily flown in anti-Russian leaders from the Baltic countries
and the Ukraine. Launching heavy-handed cold-war style anti-Russian
slogans Saakashvili presented Georgia as a heroic David fighting a
brutal Goliath, apparently fighting for his political survival through
an attempt to reposition himself as leader of an anti-Russian alliance
of former Soviet-Union countries: he declared Georgia would break out
of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the organization
of nine former Soviet Republics (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Georgia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan)
and called on other CIS-members to do likewise.
The spectacular media show in Tbilisi evolved as Russian tanks
were still positioned at less than 60 kilimeters from Tbilisi and
Moscow had made it clear that the decision when and to where it would
withdraw, will remain its prerogative and would be decided in light
of the Georgian government’s decisions. As the government’s effective
control is rapidly shrinking to a narrow area surrounding the capital,
to which the Georgian security forces had escaped under the impact
of Russian fire, reports are coming in about lawlessness taking hold
of the country amidst a surge of banditism in Georgian cities.