Day 2, Rustavi-Tbilisi

Half of the day I spent in Rustavi, trying to arrange with my chief the schedule for the next weeks. Usually he was rather critical regarding the authorities in Georgia, but not today. He was teying to defend them, claiming that the rally of oppositoon was organised by Russians, that Russians stand behind this political turmoil... Strange.. Then came Lasha, whom I like very much, very intersting person to talk and to spend time. We were chating for half an hour, also about recent political crisis. In his opinion, it is really foolish to blame only Russians. Moreover, Georgian police and special force units were very cruel and brutal in his action, trying to dispel the rally. Lasha was the second person who told me that they (Georgian policemen) took or were forced to take some drugs, because they beat even young girls, old people, shooting with rubber bullets children...

As we all know, presidential election wilkl be hold on January 5, 2008. But why Georgian president has decided to hold presidential, not parliamentary elections? One of the demands of the opposition was to hold parliamentary elections in April next year... But it is very easy to explain. As the president has told, this will be more a referendum:

Let’s hold these elections without additional postponement. I, as the leader of this country, need an unequivocal mandate from you in order to tackle all the foreign threats, to tackle all types of pressure on Georgia, to tackle attempts at annexing Georgian territory, to tackle plans directed towards destabilizing Georgia.
So I propose that you judge and give me your trust and your support for the country’s further strengthening and to show the entire world that the Georgian people can maintain unity despite attempts at destabilizing us.

Executive power controls judicial system. Prosecutor General will not dare to critise the executive power, also president or contradict them. Moreover, it was a good strategical step from one side to raise salaries of policemen, army, people, working for all law-enforcement bodies. As I was told today usually Georgian soldies, serving in the army, gets 1000 GEL. Enough to survive in Georgia... I agree also that to increase salaries was very essential to fight with corruption and illegal activities of the law-enforcement bodies, but we still have teachers, getting around 90 (a bit more than 50 USD), and pensioners - around 38 GEL. Agree that the main reason to go out and protest was poverty, unemployment, but also absence of the Rule of Law in the country. Each of them has his own story to tell....