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Georgia’s `Scarface’: the rise and fall of Saakashvili

A year after mass anti-Saakashvili protests were held in the Georgian
capital of Tbilisi the struggle of the country’s opposition
continues. RT sums up Georgia’s recent history and tries to take a
glimpse into the country’s future. Citizen S’s Rosebud

Mikhail Saakashvili came to power in 2003, following events that
became known as the Rose Revolution. On November 23 a group of
demonstrators stormed Georgia’s parliament. They demanded the
resignation of then president Eduard Shevardnadze after the results of
parliamentary elections were judged to have been falsified.

Shevardnadze subsequently bowed out, leaving three heroes of the Rose
Revolution – Parliamentary Chair Nino Burdzhanadze, then opposition
leaders Saakashvili and future Prime-Minister Zurab Zhvania – in
power.

According to the country’s constitution, Burdzhanadze became acting
President and a date (January 4, 2004) was set for election, in which
Saakashvili predictably won a landslide victory, getting 96% votes of
a record 82.8% turnout.

Adjaria’s Velvet Revolution

With all the talk surrounding two newly recognised independent
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgia’s two other regions with tensions
have largely eluded attention.

The Armenian majority of Southern Samtskhe-Javakheti region has
repeatedly called for greater autonomy, while the South-Western
Adjaria had spent a week separated from the rest of Georgia during the
spring crisis of 2004.

Ruled by authoritarian Aslan Abashidze, Adjaria managed to capitalize
on the early years of market economy, with its capital port of Batumi
becoming a major transit hub for goods heading to and from Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

With the majority of the aforementioned exports being oil, Abashidze
preferred to keep the most of the transport and Black Sea tourism
revenuesin his region – something that would never suit the
Saakashvili, who had aims at bettering the economy.

Sensing that Saakashvili will come for him sooner or later Abashidze
heavily opposed the Rose Revolution, declared a state of emergency
immediately after Shevardnadze’s ousting and sought to establish
closer ties with Russia in hopes of getting support.

However, Russia was in no rush to undermine its relations with
Georgia. Following a tense week of attempting to ignore both protests
within his region and Georgia’s arms wiggling outside, and while
flying to Moscow for advice following every new development, Abashidze
resigned.

The events received its own soft – `Velvet’ -` revolution label and
Abashidze, who moved to Moscow, got his 15-year sentence in absentia.

Evident progress of economy

Having two very tough political issues resolved and shedding virtually
no blood Saakashvili shifted his attention to economy, and it was an
immediate success.

Employing economy professionals from the private sector into
Zhvania-=99s cabinet, the most notable of which being Russian oligarch
of Georgian origin Kakha Bendukidze, who became the Minister of
Economy, Saakashvili’s regime managed to raise the GDP growth rate
from 5% in 2004 to near 10% in 2007.

One of the ways of doing so was by easing the regulations regarding
business and entrepreneurship. Georgia rocked the International
Finance Corporation’ s annual `Doing Business’ rating, that tracks
indicators of the time and cost to meet government requirements in
business start-up, operation, trade, taxation, and closure.

It climbed some 75 positions in 2007 alone, and with a 2% fall of
unemployment, Georgia was named the reformer of the year. By 2009 (the
rating for each year is published in September of previous year)
Georgia is the 15th most business-friendly economy in the world, ahead
of Germany (25), Switzerland(21) and way ahead of Russia (120).

Some even claimed that Saakashvili’s regime managed to root the
corruption out of the traffic police – an area with a strong tradition
of bribery ever since the Soviet era.

When I interviewed him in 2006, Bendukidze left the impression of a
man not only proud of his achievements, but also one who sees a long
road of improvement ahead of himself and his country.

Yet somehow, the events of 2007 went from good to bad.

Death of an ally and alienation of others

The roots of the problem began in 2006, when amid a rising economy
Georgia suddenly started to address the problem of breakaway republics
of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The fact that it happened in between
visits of U.S. senators to Georgia leaves little doubt on who gave
Saakashvili the ill-timed idea.

Striving to bring back the breakaway regions, Saakashvili didn’t even
spare his friends. These actions were not typical of country leaders,
but more of mobster bosses like Tony Montana.

The minister in charge of regulating conflicts Georgy Haindrava – one
of the key supporters of Saakashvili during the Rose Revolution – was
dismissed with no remorse, after strongly opposing the idea of using
force to solve the conflicts with South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

By then Saakashvili had already lost the wisest of his allies. In
February 2005 Prime Minister Zhvania was found dead in a rented
apartment. Police claimed he died of carbon monoxide poisoning due to
an inadequately ventilated gas heater. Although, his death was ruled
accidental, Zhvania’s family continues to question the results of the
investigation.

Zhvania was, as many believed, for Saakashvili what Manny Ribera was
for Tony Montana in Scarface: the person, who managed to stop him on
the brinkof radical and irreversible actions.

A year after Zhvania’s demise Saakashvili started to fear for his
position. He started a campaign to intimidate the opposition by mass
arrests. Saakashvili also attempted to initiate an early presidential
election in 2008, though having been elected in early 2004 he was
entitled to office till 2009.

In August 2007 when yet another of Saakashvili’s former allies -`
ex-Defence Minister Irakly Okruashvili – made grave accusations
against the President, Georgia saw itself on the brink of civil war.

Okruashvili also gave some new info on Zhvania’s death, and was
immediately detained by police.

November 7, 2007

This led to mass protest organized by none other than Haindrava in the
early days of November. Tens of thousands gathered around the
parliament building in Tbilisi demanding Saakashvili’s resignation on
November 1.

Saakashvili initially dismissed the protest as `a campaign-=99 of
lies. Then, on their sixth day of the standstill, with some 70,000
protesting on the streets of Tbilisi, he addressed the nation, calling
for calm.

Meanwhile out on the streets, riot police used tear gas, sound guns,
water canons and rubber bullets many of which were believed to be
supplied by Azerbaijan to disperse the crowds.

Opposition channel Imedi TV which has been called `the voice of
opposition in Georgia’ was shut down. It was broadcasting live when
the presenter in the studio suddenly announced that there were riot
police and special forces in the building. They then detained the
billionaire tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili owned TV station-=99s
employees.

RT’s own correspondent Ekaterina Azarova and cameraman Evgeny Litovko,
were caught up in the police crackdown. They were conducting a live
television broadcast when special forces began to spray tear gas, as a
result of which our team suffered tear-gas poisoning.

To watch RT’s footage of the events, please follow the link.

By the evening of November 7, Saakashvili – again rather like
TonyMontana – was relegated to a state in which his enemies were once
his allies.

Repeating Abashidze’s actions of 2004, he declared a 15-day nationwide
state of emergency.

January election and war

Having the political initiative in his tight grip Saakashvili gave the
green light for a snap election in January, banking on the lack of
timethe opposition had for choosing and preparing their candidate.

It was a risk, but also his only chance to end the disturbances, which
already brought about the Human Rights Watch’s criticism for
using`excessive’ police force and warnings of growing authoritarianism
from International Crisis Group.

It took some time for the opposition to decide on the single candidacy
of Levan Gachechiladze, while their main financial supporter Badri
Patarkatsishvili announced he would campaign against Saakashvili in
order to keep Georgia from sliding into ` dictatorship’.

Patarkatsishvili’s Imedi resumed broadcast in December, but refrained
from any politics related discussions till the election.

Despite having this kind of opposition, Saakashvili prevailed in the
election with 53.47% of the vote, with both Gachechiladze (25.69%) and
Patarkatsishvili (7.10%) lagging far behind. Opposition supporters
claimed the results were rigged and went on hunger strike demanding a
second round election.

Meanwhile in London, unable to handle the defeat, 52-year-old
Patarkatsishvili died of a heart attack.

In April a mysterious American businessman Joseph Kay, claiming to be
the oligarch’s step cousin, appeared in Tbilisi to claim the rights
for the Imedi channel backed by Saakashvili-=99s government.

Though Kay vowed not to interfere with the channels editorial or
personnel policies, the latest Imedi’s incarnation was politically
harmless.

With no alternative TV channels left in Georgia apart from the
state-backed ones, Saakashvili had achieved yet another victory. His
United National Movement party dominated the parliamentary election in
May.

August saw the ever more self-confident Saakashvili let the age-long
tensions between Tbilisi and South Ossetia escalate into a full-blown
military conflict with Russia’s participation, which lead to Russia’s
recognition of the breakaway countries’ independence in September.

U.S. looking for new Georgian leader?

In the dying days of August 2008 a number of prominent political
figures from Georgia visited the U.S., including the speaker of the
Georgian Parliament David Bakradze, chairman of Georgia’s Republican
Party David Usupashvili, Burdzhanadze (who currently heads the new
opposition party United Georgia), and David Gamkrelidze, leader of the
New Right opposition party.

This was viewed as a move to choose a new leader for Georgia, sparking
rumours that Burdzhanadze has received the overseas blessing for the
post.

Gamkrelidze in particular flew across the Atlantic to take part in the
2008 Republican National Convention, where he was supposed to conduct
meetings with members of U.S. political elite. In an interview given
at the time he suggested that to overcome the political and economic
crises Georgia will need to hold an early presidential election.

With Obama in the White House, Gamkrelidze may have to abandon his
plans made together with the Republicans.

However, the short but bloody war obviously put Saakashvili-=99s
regime into an ambiguous and unpredictable position.

Now a year after violent mass protests the opposition is once again on
the streets.

Ruben Zarbabyan, RT
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