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GEORGIA: ARRESTS OF THE OPPOSITION LEADERS
GHIA NODIA,
Political Scientist, Director of the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, Tbilisi, Georgia
Georgian political organizations, whose members were arrested on September 6, can’t be considered to be classical opposition parties. In Georgia their supporters are considered to be agents of influence of the Russian secret services. Therefore, the methods of their political struggle do not meet the conventional ways of the opposition actions.
I would not say that the reason for the arrests of the leaders of the opposition parties has become a fact of Russia's financial support. Also I would not agree with the Georgian authorities’ explanation that the detained politicians were preparing a coup d’etat in order to seize power. At the same time, I would not state with confidence that such a plot was not being prepared.
There is certain logic here. The arrested politicians supported the revolutionary ways of struggle and unconstitutional change of power.
Political parties, which they represent, are not going to participate in the forthcoming municipal elections. It means that the election race does not bear direct relation to the arrests. If the authorities were guided by this motive, it was partially psychological, i.e. arrests of the supporters of the political organizations related to the Russian secret services would create the image of the “foreign enemy”, which plays into the authorities’ hands in the run-up to the elections.
In this connection I think that the actions of the Georgian authorities cannot touch the other opposition parties that have nothing to do with the Russian special agencies and do not back up the revolutionary overthrow of the regime.
We can’t suspect the Georgian authorities of exerting direct pressure on the opposition before the elections. Also, one should not draw an analogy between the opposition that is believed to be related to the Russian special services and the opposition that sticks to the parliamentary methods of political struggle.
This logic seems to be broken by the arrest of Irakli Batiashvili, leader of “Georgia, Ahead” opposition movement. But this arrest does also not mean the intention of the authorities to put pressure on the opposition. The main reason of his arrest is that he was on good terms with former governor of Svanetia Emzar Kvitsiani.
As regards Russia’s reaction to the arrests of the Georgian opposition leaders, I think that the Russian policy-makers are unlikely to ignore these events.
The reaction will be more adequate if Russia lays stress on the necessity to observe the democratic values. The direct criticism of the Georgian authorities and the open support for the arrested politicians will just confirm the close relation between the latter and Russia.
September 7, 2006
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