In Strasbourg, Mikhail Saakashvili has looked at relations with Russia from a different angle.
Photo: AP, AP
|
 |
Mikhail Saakashvili Wins an Away Game
// Georgia’s president surprises the PACE
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili delivered a triumphant speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Thursday. Having failed to bar his visit to Strasbourg, the Russian delegation was going to show all of their indignation at the session, but Mr. Saakashvili surprised everyone by his probably most peaceful speech ever. After declaring his striving to be friends with Russia he ironically suggested sharing his experience in holding a democratic election. Kommersant’s Mikhail Zygar reports from Strasbourg.
Passing the Ball
“May I say what an experience it is for me, a humble free-kick taker from Lorraine, to stand in front of this distinguished assembly – you make a formidable defensive wall!” said a man who arrived to attend the PACE session Thursday morning.
The audience were looking at him with admiration. Some were taking pictures with their mobile phones. The person speaking was Michel Platini, the world’s best football player of 1985 and 1986 and incumbent UEFA president. He came to Strasbourg to discuss ways to protect European sport.
Michel Platini was still in the building when his namesake, Mikhail Saakashvili’s car pulled up to the Council of Europe. The PACE’s new President Lluis Maria de Puig had to leave the hall where his favorite topic, football, was discussed to meet the Georgian president outside.
The Russian delegation were strolling in the corridors throwing artificially indifferent glances to the glass doors that the Georgian president was to emerge from. But they hid in the session hall a couple minutes before his arrival.
Russian lawmakers were prepared for Mr. Saakashvili’s visit. They spent last week struggling to bar Mikhail Saakashvili from visiting Strasbourg. But thanks to Lluis Maria de Puig’s obstinacy Mikhail Saakashvili got his invitation after all and then the Russian delegation decided to come up with some reaction. “If he’s been invited after all, we’ll be asking him questions,” Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russian delegation, told Kommersant with a meaning.
As he was climbing the stars Mikhail Saakashvili said he came to show that Georgia had successfully passed all necessary exams to the surprise of the world community.
“Do you know that the Russian delegation is preparing a surprise for you?” a reporter asked him.
“The PACE is an open forum,” he replied. “I know that the Russian delegation is very active and has a lot of influence, and I’m happy about it. I’m ready for a dialogue and I’m not going to quarrel with anyone.”
Meanwhile, the Russian delegation were preparing a real surprise for Mikhail Saakashvili as they petitioned to sanction a probe into the death of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, draft a report and hear it at one of the upcoming sessions. Mr. Kosachev said that the suggestion was drafted by Mikhail Margelov’s office and handed to the PACE’s bureau. The issue with the report is to be settled at the February session.
Matias Eorsi, reporter on Georgia, said in an interview with Kommersant that it is very unlikely that the PACE would hold such a probe saying the Assembly does not normally engage in detective activities. He added that the topic is likely to be turned down by the bureau. It is also possible that the issue of Zurab Zhvania’s death would even fail to reach the bureau but will get lost in the representative office of the Russian Federation Council in Strasbourg. The Russia delegation promised to raise the issue of Mr. Zhvania’s death at the PACE last October but papers which were filed contained so many errors that this effort to discredit Georgian authorities fell flat.
A Winning Kick
Mikhail Saakashvili went to talk to the press after talks with the Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis. He was smiling and speaking Russian with pleasure. “It’s never late to start everything from scratch,” he told reporters. “I’m sure that relations between Georgia and Russia will soon get warmer. I will come to Moscow as soon as I get the invitation. And I will do my best to mend the relations.”
“Are you hoping to come before the presidential election? Would you like to meet President Putin before he leaves?”
“Well, I hope President Putin is going to be around,” Mikhail Saakashvili replied with a broader smile. “So I think we’ll see each other anyway.” He went on to say words of praise for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who visited Tbilisi several days earlier and promised that Russia was not going to recognize independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Obviously, Sergey Lavrov and Mikhail Saakashvili suddenly gave up all intransigence and agreed to stop mutual attacks. This could be the only reason why Mikhail Saakashvili found it so easy to compliment Moscow.
The Georgian president entered the session hall to speak to the delegates who were to discuss a report on the situation in Georgia. The paper was quite critical. The PACE condemned Georgians officials for dispersing an opposition rally in Tbilisi on November 7 last year, introducing emergency rule and closing the Imedi TV channel. The report also expressed disappointment over the recent election. It praised, however, some success of recent reforms in the country.
Mikhail Saakashvili knew perfectly well that the European lawmakers were critical. He expected a surprise from the Russian delegation and apparently decided to strike before everyone would. After praising “the influential Russian delegation” and Minister Lavrov Mikhail Saakashvili opened his speech with praise for Georgian opposition. “I’m glad that our opposition parties are becoming more influential,” he said. “I think that opposition members will soon take seats in the government.”
He then touched upon the issue of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and went on to discuss Russia. In earlier speeches Mikhail Saakashvili criticized Moscow for supporting separatists and occupying Georgia’s territory. This time he was more discreet. “Fulfilling dreams and desires of the people of Georgia does mean disregarding concerns and interests of our neighbors including Russia. We hope that with our friends from Russia we will walk down this path together. We are ready to continue cooperation on the settlement of conflicts. We can do a lot together with Russia. We also hope for help from our opposition.”
The Russian delegation were listening with their eyes wide open to the revelations of the Georgian president. He went on to say that he had invited experts from the Council of Europe to help Georgia amend its laws and improve election laws such as cut the seven-percent threshold to the five-percent one and reform some of governmental bodies.
The Russian delegation looked shocked. Mikhail Saakashvili finished his speech, and there was time for questions and criticism. Switzerland’s Andreas Gross, former rapporteur on Chechnya and fierce critic of Moscow, was hard on Mr. Saakashvili.
“The Rose Revolution has taught us that no nation in Europe will stand idly by if somebody tries to steal an election from it. How are you going to correct an impression that you stole the run-off from your people?” he asked as if he did not hear Mikhail Saakashvili’s speech.
“There is an impression, and there is reality,” he replied. “We had a lot of observers, a lot of exit polls. And all of them had the same conclusion. It is unfair to say that we stole something.”
Mikhail Saakashvili went down from the rostrum to take a seat somewhere in the middle of the hall. He apparently did not feel comfortable as he was sitting right on the edge of the chair.
“We laid great hopes on you,” Belgium’s Luc van den Brande said. “But now we’ve got some doubts, hesitations and concern. We are disappointed.”
Mikhail Saakashvili pulled himself together and made another big speech on what reforms he has carried out in the recent years and how he fought corruption. Georgia used to be like Nigeria in terms of corruption and now no worse than the Netherlands, he said.
Next questions came from Azerbaijan’s deputies and then Russian lawmakers took the floor. Konstantin Kosachev asked Mikhail Saakashvili why Georgia won’t sign an agreement to guarantee that force will not be used to settle frozen conflicts.
“The last thing that Georgia needs is any complication,” he said. “We are a rapidly developing country. We need to invest in the economy, build hospitals and schools but not wage wars. We will be glad to sign an agreement that secures against the use of force but who will give us the same sort of guarantee?”
Leonid Slutsky supported Konstantin Kosachev. He said that because of the low turnout at the election the number of people who voted for Mikhail Saakashvili was four times s less than the number of those who supported him in 2005. He asked how Georgian authorities were now going to build relations with opposition that does not recognize him to be a legitimate president.
“Duma deputies may be better informed but I thought this election had the highest turnout in Georgia’s history,” the Georgian president said. “The interest of the people was amazing. I got all the votes I hoped for while opposition got everything they have never dreamt of. This is a great show of pluralism! You know we are ready to share our experience. We know that strong opposition does not undermine the government. We do not bar opposition candidates from running in the election. We do not disperse rallies. We know that there’s nothing wrong about them. We are ready to share our experience with our neighbors. This is a great experience for those who are afraid of opposition. We had 1,200 observers monitoring the election. If we compare this number to the population in Russia, it would mean as if 40,000 people came to Russia. This number makes an election more legitimate.”
Time allocated for Mikhail Saakashvili ran out. He made it to the exit passing by his opponents with a smile.
“I protest! We haven’t heard anything! We didn’t have a chance to ask him questions,” a deputy was shouting in the microphone. But the Georgian president was already out.
Overtime
Mikhail Saakashvili was gone but the PACE yet had to pass a resolution on the situation in Georgia. Lawmakers continued with their moderate criticism as planned.
“Developments in Georgia show that miracles don’t exit. Many people say that the country has seen some rollback,” rapporteur Mattias Eorsi said.
The Russian delegation looked demoralized. Konstantin Kosachev said that he “knows and loves Georgia while Europeans are doing it a bad turn trying to close their eyes on what’s going on in the country”.
“I appreciate Mr. Saakashvili’s reserve today,” he said. “We will keep an eye on his practical steps.”
Levan Berdzenishvili from Georgian opposition was the only person to contrast the peaceful mood of the Russian delegation.
“The fact that Mikhail Saakashvili is a brilliant speaker is well known,” he said. “But you must understand that Georgians will never forgive him for November 7, 2007!”
Council of Europe deputies nodded in response. A mildly critical resolution was passed in a majority vote as there were no more than 50 people left in the session hall by that moment.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 25, 2008
|
|
|
