Switching gears.I would think we are going to be reading and/or hearing much more about Georgia in the near future.NATO is not going to stay hands off on this prime bit of global property. Key to destabilizing Russia. Leading towards a western goal of balkanization. Georgia is after all pipeline central. Pipelines for oil. Pipeline for western backed Islamic fighters.There are a number of posts on this subject at the blog, you can access them by clicking on the label belowPerhaps Kaspi will stop by and let us all know the latest from Georgia?Kaspi, if your around and wouldn't mind, that would be terrific! From left, then-Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and BP CEO John Browne after laying the last piece of a pipeline symbolically at the Ceyhan crude oil terminal near Turkey's southern coastal city of Adana US-Georgia Military Cooperation Needed As Georgia's Energy Security Needs Rise With Oil And Gas Pipelines
“Georgia has contributed to the energy security of Eurasia and has accumulated vast experience in implementation of important transnational energy projects,” said Valeri Chechelashvilli, deputy foreign minister of Georgia.
The 609-mile BTE pipeline transports natural gas produced in the Sha Deniz field, located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, to Georgia and on to Turkey.Perhaps the most important pipeline that passes through Georgia is the BTC, which transports about 1 million barrels of crude oil from oil fields in the Caspian Sea to the Turkish coast of the Mediterranean, where it then is shipped via tankers to European markets. “The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is a major success for the U.S. goal of enhancing and diversifying global energy supplies,” the U.S. State Department said in May 2005.
Georgia voters poised to elect new president, reject Saakashvili allyAn interesting tidbit is contained within this article. It will be highlighted.
He was the star of Georgia’s Rose Revolution. (The ‘rose’ revolution, just one of the many western backed ‘colour’ revolutions) As president, he cracked down hard on corruption, sought to refashion his country along Western lines and made government services efficient and effective. (That’s just nonsensical stuff)He also led Georgia into its disastrous war with Russia in 2008, allowed abuses in the criminal justice system to fester and earned a reputation for capricious arrogance. (That’s more accurate. Saakashvili did indeed start a war with Russia in 08. And boy oh boy did he allow abuses in the justic system)Now President Mikheil Saakashvili is stepping down after nearly a decade in office — and on Sunday, Georgia’s voters made it abundantly clear that they are not interested in prolonging his political legacy.Exit polls Sunday evening showed two-thirds of the vote going to the handpicked ally of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who came to power last year in opposition to Saakashvili. The president’s favored candidate, Davit Bakradze of the United National Movement, came in second in a field of 23, but got only about 20 percent of the vote, two independent exit polls said.Dozens of former officials from Saakashvili’s government have been investigated or charged with crimes since Ivanishvili became prime minister. Georgia has been cautioned by Western nations not to pursue victor’s justice against former incumbents, (Why?) but Ivanishvili contends that the previous government was rife with lawlessness and that criminals should be held accountable.On television Tuesday, he said that Saakashvili will not be subject to a “political” pursuit, but that he might well face legal questioning once he leaves office — particularly over the death of a former prime minister.
Kutasai Georgia- Three days before Georgia’s presidential election, Ivane Merabishvili, the former prime minister and still a leader of the country’s main opposition party, sat in a courtroom here, in the glass box reserved for defendants held without bail.
As voters go to the polls on Sunday to replace President Mikheil Saakashvili in what by all predictions will be a rare, peaceful transition, Mr. Merabishvili is not alone. More than 10 other former ministers or other high-level officials who served with him in Mr. Saakashvili’s government are on trial or facing prosecutions that could bring long sentences.There is also intense speculation that Mr. Saakashvili will be arrested when he leaves the presidency later this month — to the point that he has been in talks about taking a position as a visiting professor at Columbia University, with supporters advising him that time outside the country might reduce his chances of incarceration.
Mr. Saakashvili going back to the country from whence he was created
To members of Mr. Saakashvili’s party, United National Movement, the criminal cases represent ruthless political retribution. It is particularly undeserved, they say, because Mr. Saakashvili accepted his party’s defeat last year by Georgian Dream, the party led by the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is now prime minister. Bush and Saakashvili- those were the days!
To the Georgian public this is not a case of retribution:
“What can I say?” he asked with a philosophical air. “On the one side, many say there are too many defendants from the prior government, and the process could be assessed as politically motivated. However, if you go to the Georgian public and ask their opinion, the prosecutor’s office is not as strong as it should be.”
This should get interesting.