TINA KANDELAKI: FROM GEORGIA WITH LOATHING

Independent
Monday, 22 September 2008
UK

The television star Tina Kandelaki might be expected to feel aggrieved
about Russian action in Georgia, her native country. Not a bit of
it. Moscow’s media has more freedom, she says, and her President,
Mikheil Saakashvili, will go down in history as Mikheil the Destroyer,
she tells Shaun Walker

Tina Kandelaki: "Saakashvili did everything possible to bring about
the war between Russia and Georgia"

Tina Kandelaki has one of the best known faces in Russia. She’s one of
the country’s top television presenters, has appeared on the covers of
Russian FHM and Playboy, and runs a successful production company. She
is also a Georgian, one of an estimated one million Georgians who live
in Russia, and whose lives have been turned upside down by the recent
conflict between the two countries over the breakaway territory of
South Ossetia.

Up to now, Russia’s Georgian community, which includes a large number
of influential cultural figures, has maintained a low profile over the
conflict and kept public statements to a minimum. But Ms Kandelaki,
speaking to The Independent in an upmarket bar just off Red Square,
is angry. The focus of her anger is not Russia’s President, Dmitry
Medvedev, or its uncompromising Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, nor
is it the Russian army, which occupied large swathes of Georgia last
month. Ms Kandelaki is angry with one man only – Mikheil Saakashvili,
the Georgian President.

"Saakashvili did everything possible to bring this about," says Ms
Kandelaki. "Of course the Russian response was disproportionate,
and difficult to deal with, but it was all Saakashvili’s fault."

Ms Kandelaki, 32, who speaks fast, loudly and with fury in her eyes,
has a personal history with the Georgian President. Born in Tbilisi,
she became a TV star in her native Georgia, before moving to Moscow
to further her career 10 years ago. She says that three years ago on
a visit to Tbilisi, Mr Saakashvili asked her to come back home and
run a Georgian TV channel.

"To start with, he was charming, but his whole career is based
on personal power and overcoming his own personal complexes," she
said. "He told me that he would go down in history, along with David
the Builder, a medieval Georgian king. He’s not David the Builder,
he’s Mikheil the Destroyer."

She accuses Mr Saakashvili of running Georgia like an autocrat,
trampling free speech and whipping up hatred against Russia. "Twenty
four hours a day they show propaganda about how bad the Russians are,"
she says. "Everything there is controlled by Saakashvili – business,
and the media. There is no freedom at all."

Indeed, Ms Kandelaki makes the controversial claim that Russia,
where television is notorious for being under the close control of
the Kremlin, has a freer media than "democratic" Georgia.

"In Russia, every time I’m on television I talk about how I’m a
Georgian; I talk about how much I love my country, and nobody has
ever told me to stop saying this, I’ve never received a call saying
I should talk less about Georgia, and I’ve never been discriminated
against for being Georgian."

A spokesman for the Russian Union of Georgians said that most members
of the expatriate community have Russian passports, although the
minority with Georgian passports now have no consular representation
since Mr Saakashvili cut diplomatic links between the two countries
in the wake of last month’s conflict.

Georgians in Russia have been on alert since 2006 when, during an
earlier dispute between the two countries, Russia cut all transport
links and banned the import of Georgian wine. Many Georgian citizens
were rounded up and deported.

"Two years ago, there were big problems for Georgians, but this time
we haven’t had any reports of discrimination or attacks," said the
union’s spokesman. "One Georgian cafe was burnt down a month ago,
which might be linked, but otherwise everything is peaceful."

But other Georgians in Moscow reported that there had been
problems. Zurab Makashvili, a shop owner, said that he had been
abused by customers when they realised he was Georgian. "Now I just
tell them I’m an Armenian," he said. "Russians usually can’t tell
the difference."

"We’re angry with the US and we’re angry with Russia," said Tea Kenia,
28, a Georgian who was born in Sukhumi, the capital of Georgia’s
breakaway region of Abkhazia, but left for Moscow with her family in
1992 when the Abkhaz separatists defeated the Georgian army. "Georgia
is just a small country where two superpowers are fighting."

Ms Kenia prefers not to talk about the conflict with Russians. "I
just decided not to discussit with my friends because I know we think
differently," she said. "For me, the situation is a bit strange now. I
don’t feel entirely safe."

Ms Kenia said that her family’s car, as well as the cars of
several other Georgians living in the same apartment block, had been
vandalised, their tyres slashed, at the height of the conflict. "It’s
difficult to believe that it was just chance – all the cars belonged
to Georgians," she said.

Mr Saakashvili has accused some Georgians living in Russia of being
traitors and earlier this year charged that criminal elements which he
flushed out of the country when he came to power had moved to Russia
and were now working for the Russian security services.

But one thing that all Georgians living in Russia seem to agree on
is that Mr Saakashvili was misguided in trying to take Georgia out
of Russia’s orbit and embrace the US and Nato.

Zurab Tsereteli, a Georgian sculptor who is a close friend of the mayor
of Moscow and has built a monument to Russian-Georgian friendship in
the city, compared the war to a lovers’ tiff. "Even if you really
love your wife, you’ll still have to take a break sometimes," Mr
Tsereteli told a Russian newspaper. "Sometimes you need to take a
break from love, and that’s what’s happening now. But tomorrow the
romance will start again, and it will be passionate!"

Ms Kandelaki agreed that Mr Saakashvili’s reorientation of Georgia
will be temporary: "Russia is much closer to us than America; the
Russian and Georgian cultures have been intertwined for centuries,
and each is unimaginable without the other. If we want to be happy we
must find a connection with Russia, and everybody understands this
except Saakashvili. We are so close to Russia. For America, we are
only a small place where they can put their military bases. After all,
we’re only 40 minutes away from Iran."