Frontier barriers of the Georgian democracy

The Georgian authorities are demonstrating their "desire" to set up a dialogue with Russia by means of the people's democracy. The country has denied entrance to the initiators of the historic and literature award Marina Guseva and Alexander Veligonenko, who were carrying a book about Commander Bagration and were going to take part in the presentation of the World Congress of Peoples of Georgia branch office. The GeorgiaTimes correspondent interviewed Marina Guseva (see photo).

Everything happened quickly and unexpectedly in the early morning of November 13. Members of the Russian history and literature Alexander Nevskiy Prize Committee Marina Guseva and Alexander Veligonenko came out of an Armenian Airlines plane (there is no direct flight connection with Georgia) and started filling in the forms to obtain visas like many other Russians that arrived. At that moment, a customs officer came up to them, took their documents and went away.

"In forty minutes we were already flying back to Yerevan", - says Marina Anatolyevna. A Georgian policeman escorted the Russians to the Armenian airport. He carried the passports of the literature experts in his hand and gave them back only in Yerevan. There, the inspector left the expelled Russians, who found themselves in a rather embarrassing situation.

It turned out that they flew illegally, for they had the tickets only for the next day. Their luggage was nearly lost because they had no time to fetch it in Georgia. "We are very grateful to Armenian Airlines who helped us find our luggage and sent us to Moscow", - says the GeorgiaTimes' interlocutor.

The most curious thing is that the reason of expelling the Russians was not specified in the Act of Deportation to Yerevan. Guseva and Velokogonenko never made any unwanted political statements against Georgia; neither have they been to Abkhazia or South Ossetia, so is why they could not have been punished for visiting those republics without Tbilisi's permission.

Marina Guseva has been to Georgia, to Kobuleti in Soviet times.

«I like Georgia very much. I read a lot before going there, for I am the head of the Russian history and literature Alexander Nevskiy Prize Committee. As soon as we learnt that Ebralidze is going to establish a similar prize named after David the Builder (Agmashenebeli) in his country we decided to help him and share our experience with him", - she explained.

The workers of culture were carrying several copies of Bagration, a book about the Georgian commander that served the Russian throne. The essay was going to be translated into Georgian by the Georgian colleagues. The book was recently published on the initiative of co-establisher of Alexander Nevskiy Prize, owner of Talion OJSC Alexander Ebralidze.

"I know him personally. He is a historian and a man who is in favor of the cultural approach between Russia and Georgia", - Guseva explained.

Another co-establisher of the Russian prize that has been existing for 5 years already is the Union of Writers of Russia headed by Doctor of Historical Sciences Valeriy Ganichev. The initiators hold various contests on literary and historical compositions and museum memorial projects.

Alexander Nevskiy Prize in Russia may be contested only by historical and literary compositions dated not later than 1945; thus, the organizers try to avoid politics. However, the current Georgian authorities managed to politicize even those events that happened three centuries ago, saying that Georgia's occupation by the Russian empire started at the time of signing the Georgian treaty.

As to Marina Guseva, she believes that she and her colleague were not allowed to Georgia because of their connection with Ebralidze. The more so, as Director of the Russian branch of the Congress Alexander Kinteraya was not allowed to the presentation of the office of World Congress of Peoples of Georgia that he is heading.

He flew to Tbilisi through Austria; however, on the evening of November 12 he was turned back at the airport.

"As usual, the reason for denying entrance to the country was never told. Still, the reality is simple enough: Kinteraya's visit to Georgia is the final step of preparing the visit of the president of the World Congress of Peoples of Georgia Alexander Ebralidze to Georgia", - the congress press service stated.

GeorgiaTimes has already reported that Ebralidze is trying to attain the Georgian citizenship and is dreaming of bringing back Abkhazia and South Ossetia by taking the helm of the state.

Judging by the latest incidents of non-admission to the country of the people who know him, whether it is a public activist or a literary reviewer, his ambitious plans are feared in Georgia.

As the Georgian border police explained to Russian newspaper Commersant, "Kinteraya, Guseva and Veligonenko were denied an entrance visa, for their purpose did not correspond to the essence of the event they were going to take part in".

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