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Saturday, 21 November 2009

Interview
  • Mortal Combat for the Rustavi Metallurgical Plant 2009-11-20 18:23
  • Berezovskiy may take possession of the Georgian “Hope” 2009-11-19 21:18
  • Frontier barriers of the Georgian democracy 2009-11-17 00:27
  • Ebralidze: a scarecrow for Saakashvili? 2009-11-13 17:39 Representative of the Russian branch of the World Congress of Peoples of Georgia Alexander Kinteraya was not allowed to enter Georgia. He intended to open an organizational branch there. The reason for denial was not mentioned; however, it is the presidential ambitions of the Congress Head Alexander Ebralidze that could be the only obstacle.
  • Small taxes that claim a lot 2009-11-12 17:27 Because of the crisis the Georgian government was forced to reconsider their attitude to taxes. Desire to make Georgia more investment-attractive was replaced by a trend to squeeze money from businesses. The latest victim of this policy is Kazbegi beer factory in Rustavi. And again rhetoric does not match deed - which is normal for Mikheil Saakashvili. Recently he spoke about improvement of tax environment.
  • Civil disobedience inevitable 2009-11-10 14:47 Autumn slack doesn't seem to last long with the opposition declaring a new wave of rallies. NGOs have raised an ultimatum to the president of Georgia. Experts are at their wits' end making any forecasts. Two scenarios are possible: either the opposition raises the white flag eventually or a new turn of confrontation is there to start.
  • Why Tsotne Gamsakhurdia was arrested 2009-11-09 17:40 November rallies in Georgia went by almost without emergencies with the police dispersing only one demonstration of the supporters of Manana Archvadze-Gamsakhurdia, the widow of Georgia's ex president demanding liberation of Tsotne, her son who had recently been arrested and declared a hunger strike in protest. Gamsakhurdia's supporters consider him a political prisoner. GeorgiaTimes correspondent tried to figure out intricacies of the Georgian justice.
  • Sheremet to stand before court for insult 2009-11-06 17:25 Former Defense Minister of Georgia, now opposition Movement for United Georgia leader is going to sue TV journalist Pavel Sheremet in court. The Georgian "hawk" doesn't like the way the author of "Saakashvili. Georgia. Shattered Dreams" depicted him in his book. GeorgiaTimes correspondent asked Pavel Sheremet why he had offended Irakli Okruashvili.
  • How Bagdasarov left Vashadze without Russian passport 2009-11-06 13:58 A new diplomatic scandal has burst out between Georgia and Russia - a small scandal in fact. State Duma deputy Semen Bagdasarov suggested that Georgian FM Grigol Vashadze be deprived of Russian citizenship. He wasn't supported by his colleagues. But Vashadze himself who hadn't planned to renounce Russian citizenship angrily submitted his RF passport to President Dmitry Medvedev together with a request of citizenship renunciation. For whose benefit? This is what GeorgiaTimes correspondent was trying to find out in Moscow and Tbilisi.
  • Tactical maneuvers on Upper Lars 2009-11-05 14:16 Russia and Georgia openly admit that restoration of traffic via Upper Lars checkpoint is of mutual interest. However even here some tactical maneuvers were started. Georgian Foreign Minister contradicted the information on Georgian-Russian talks held in Yerevan on resumption of traffic on this stretch confirming though that Georgia was discussing that with Armenia. What can the opening of the road directly connecting Georgia and Russia bring about and is there any hope for it?
Opinions
Olympic non-serenity 2009-10-22 22:22

4352.jpegThe UN General Assembly recently called to cease any military actions for the period of the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Olympic armistice is an ancient tradition established in VIII century B.C. and revived by the International Olympic Committee in the last century. Meanwhile, tomorrow the Georgian parliament will discuss the possibility of boycotting the Olympic Games in Sochi. Are the ancient traditions and international standards worth breaking, especially that Georgia is so careful about holding to any traditions?

The Georgian parliamentarians are again discussing the boycott of the Olympic Games in Sochi. According to the Georgian media, the delegates are going to convince the international community of direct parallels between the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

Consequently, the 2014 Olympics should be boycotted as well, just like it was done 34 years earlier by the western countries in respect of the Olympic Games in Moscow. Sportsmen from the USA and the Western Europe did not take part in those Olympics in protest against bringing the Soviet troops to Afghanistan.

The parliament is promoting the idea of Russia invading Afghanistatn in 1979. As the parliamentary committees underline, Georgia has got no purpose to disrupt the Olympic Games in Sochi; besides, they say that the world is dealing with the same aggressive country as in 1980.

During yesterday's meeting, Chairman of the Interim Parliamentary Commission for Resuming Georgia's Territorial Integrity Shota Malashkhia came out with an initiative, according to which an alternative sports competition, the Free Will Games, may be held in case the Olympics in Sochi are boycotted, as GHN reports.

It should be noted that the issue of disrupting the Olympic Games in Tbilisi has been already raised several times. In November 2008, in his interview to Independent newspaper, former President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze called upon the leading world countries to boycott the winter Games in Sochi.

At the end of last year, Georgia turned to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with a request to shift the winter Olympics 2014 from Sochi for the sake of safety but IOC refused to do it.

Then, the Georgian Parliamentary Committee for Sports and Youth Affairs appealed to Latvian sports subcommittee Seima, requesting to support the idea of canceling the winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014; however, Latvia did not support the boycott of the Sochi Olympics.

Last month, the parliamentarians were killing their working hours discussing the way of boycotting the Olympics in Sochi. "Olympic Games are a symbol of peace. Holding an event like this is a controversial step for a country that has altered its boundaries in the 21st century using force and ethnic cleansing", - Reuters cited Minashvili.

The parliamentarians also paid attention to the fact that holding the Games not far from the boundaries of the North-Caucasian republics, such as Chechnya and Ingushetia, may provoke a burst of terrorist activity in the region. As usual, parallels with the 1980 Moscow Olympics were drawn at this point.

However, the Georgian appeal to boycott the 2014 Olympics did not reach anyone's ears. According to Vice Prime Minister of the Russian government Dmitriy Kozak, Georgia's appeals to boycott the 2014 winter Olympic Games in Sochi will be nothing but "a voice in the wilderness". This was stated to ITAR-TASS by Vice Prime Minister of the Russian government Dmitriy Kozak.

He took part in the 121st session held by the International Olympic Committee, where he listened to the report on preparing the Games presented by the Russian organizational committee. "Both us and the International Olympic Committee have responded to the matter a long time ago. We have no intention to politicize the Olympic Games", - he underlined.

By the way, the bloody August events also started during the Olympics. The shooting in Tskhinval started on the first day of the Games. One can remember Saakashvili promising to maintain peace during the Olympic Games according to the tradition; still...

It should also be noted that once the USA also tried to derail the Olympics in Sochi. During Georgia's attack against South Ossetia and Russia's response operation on peace enforcement, the American congressmen suggested denying Moscow its right to hold the Olympics in 2014.

However, things changed since then, and the point is not only the reload between Moscow and Washington. The comprehensive report of the International Committee for Investigation of the August events in the Caucasus prepared under the guidance of Tagliavini convinced the world community that even if Russia provoked Georgia, it was Tbilisi that launched a war in August.

Now, are the tools of boycotting the Olympics in Sochi worth spending time and the people's money on? Especially considering the fact that after Tagliavini's report, no one believes in Russia's aggression any longer, parallels with 1980 thus being irrelevant.

In his talk with GeorgiaTimes' correspondent, Georgian political expert Gela Nikoleishvili underlined:

Unfortunately, PR is a ruling instrument now.

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