"The heat is on" is not a reference to temperature or the cult of global warming.Slang: a time of great activity and/or pressure has begun Stormy. Acrimonious. And surely there were outside hands setting this fire alight. There are some points of interest in the articles below. Things that are suggestive to me of outsider involvement. Is someone provoking Russia at this time? I'd say yes. Georgia has got the right location and has long been tied to the US and Israel. Think Pankisi Gorge. Think of the ISIS leader who came from Georgia, trained by the US in the Georgian Military and showed up in Syria as one of the fiercest ISIS leaders... making his way to Syria via Iraq. Meet the Rebel Commander in Syria That Assad, Russia and the U.S. All Fear
"an ethnic Chechen whose warring skills, learned in the U.S.-funded Georgian army"
Yup, an ethnic Chechen, trained by the US in the Georgian army, who suddenly shows up as ISIS in Syria, by way of Iraq... what are the odds? It’s been a good while since Georgia has been written about here at the blog. The Georgian move on the breakaway province of Abkhazia garnered much coverage at the time, but, it had been pretty quiet since. The downfall of Saakashvilli was covered as well, however, he's back! Suddenly a big outburst of protest that feels as if some interested parties had their instigators in place. Georgia is right on the border with Russia, for those who are unaware. Two provinces Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia. Russia recognized their independence. The 5 eyes led by the US did not. We’ll open the post with this news from DW: Georgia's Anti-Russian Protests Benefit Mikheil Saakashvili
Russia sent a delegation of lawmakers to Tbilisi to participate in the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, a meeting of mainly Orthodox Christian countries. The IAO has existed since the early 1990s. The current chairman is Sergei Gavrilov, a representative in Russia's Duma and a member of the Communist Party.An 'anti-Russia provocation'?Before the delegation's arrival, Georgian opposition forces protested the fact that Gavrilov has made several visits to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia recognizes both as independent states and has even integrated their troops into the national army.
The meeting of the Orthodox politicians was held in the assembly hall of Georgia's Parliament. When Gavrilov seated himself in the chair belonging to Irakli Kobakhidze, the leader of the Parliament, it sparked immediate protest from opposition politicians, who quickly mobilized supporters on the streets.Gavrilov and his colleagues were forced to flee the country. Speaking in Moscow on Friday, they referred to the incident as an "anti-Russia provocation."
Georgia's opposition leaders intend to keep up the protests and have called for the resignations of the interior minister and the head of the intelligence services, in addition to Kobakhidze, who stepped down on Friday. The parliamentarian who organized the event also resigned.
Note the use of props? (Surgical masks)Saakashvili fuels protestsStefan Meister, who leads the Heinrich Böll Foundation, a think tank with ties to Germany's Greens, in South Caucasus, told DW that there are foreign and domestic reasons for the protests. Meister said the demonstrations showed just how much Russia has polarized society: "This was about using the Orthodox Church to exert influence over Georgia." The church has traditionally refrained from engaging in politics. This organization has existed for 30 years. All churches engage in politics so it’s highly doubtful the church has refrained form engaging in politics as Meister states. What I find quite interesting is the protests broke out at the same time as the first LGBT Pride parade was set to take place.VOA Let’s face this reality, each and everyone of us. Identity politics is a weapon. And the LGBT ‘movement’, with a whole lot of help from NGO's is the latest divisive hammer being wielded to crush us all down.
Divide to conquer.to make a group of people disagree and fight with one another so that they will not join together against one
Divide to conquer. It’s the oldest game in town. Still played because it works. It's effective. People fall for it every single time.
DW: Meister said the incident had even more to do with the conflict between the ruling Georgian Dream party and opposition forces aligned with former President Saakashvili. The Movement of New Forces, Saakashvili's party, recently lost in both the presidential and parliamentary elections.Saakashvili, who was convicted of abuse of office, has had his citizenship revoked. The 51-year-old now lives in exile in Ukraine and has encouraged the protests via social media. He called the events in Georgia a "revolt" when speaking with DW in Kyiv, and predicted the downfall of the government.
Saakashvilli has always and I mean always been a USrael tool. I should mention about this time that Israel played an oversized role in the 2008 conflict.
Meister said the domestic political conflict would only worsen in the run-up to Georgia's 2020 parliamentary elections.
Though ostensibly about how Georgia handles relations with Russia, with whom it fought and lost a brief war in 2008, opposition parties have sought to seize the moment to press much wider and unrelated demands and called on people to take to the streets again on Friday evening.Thousands gathered outside parliament where opposition leaders gave the floor to young activists and students.“We are here to show our anger and our readiness to change this country,” one of the activists said.Police were present, though not in large numbers, and the protest, unlike Thursday’s demonstration, was peaceful.
Medvedev said Zurabishvili either didn’t know what she was talking about or was wilfully distorting the situation, while the Kremlin blamed radical Georgian politicians for what it called “an anti-Russian provocation.” Russian influence in Georgia remains a politically sensitive subject, with the opposition accusing the ruling Georgian Dream party – which backed Zurabishvili for the presidency late last year – of being too meek when it comes to confronting Moscow. The small south Caucasus nation, a U.S. ally, fought and lost a short war against Moscow in 2008. The two countries have not had diplomatic ties since, and Russia went on to recognize the independence of two breakaway Georgian regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where Russian troops are now garrisoned (interesting word choice "garrisoned"
Correction- the Russian troops were stationed in the break away states prior to the 2008 outbreak of fighting.
Gavrilov told a Moscow news conference on Friday he believed the protests had been preplanned.
“Our common view is that there’s an obvious attempt in Georgia right now to stage a coup d’etat and that extremist forces are trying to seize power,” he said.
I can't disagree with Gavrilov- It surely appears that the protests had been pre-planned the claimed provocation( sitting down in a chair during a meeting of a decades old group) seems to be insignificant. And it's most likely that coup d'etat is desired.