greatreporter.com, December 31st, 2006
Area: 70,152 sq km (27,086 sq mi), of which 8,640 sq km (5,336 sq mi) in the breakaway
Republic of Abkhazia
and 3,900 sq km (1,506 sq mi) in the breakaway Republic of South Ossetia
Population (2006 est.): 4,474,000, of which in
Abkhazia
177,000 and in South Ossetia 49,000
Head of state and government:
President
Mikheil
Saakashvili
, assisted by
Prime Minister
Zurab
Nogaideli
Georgia
's national security apparatus was in a state of disarray in 2006.
Pres.
Mikheil
Saakashvili
dismissed his close associate, hawkish
Defense Minister
Irakli
Okruashvili
, on November 10, appointing him economy minister to succeed
Irakli
Chogovadze
, but
Okruashvili
resigned his new post on November 17.
Interior Minister
Vano
Merabishvili
, was harshly criticized following the murder in late January, by ministry officials, of
banker
Sandro
Girgvliani
and a riot on March 27 in a
Tbilisi
jail in which seven prisoners died, but
Saakashvili
ignored opposition demands for
Merabishvili
's dismissal.
Troops were deployed on July 25 to the Kodori Gorge, but they failed to apprehend former regional governor
Emzar
Kvitsiani
, whom the authorities accused of sedition. Former security minister
Irakli
Batiashvili
was arrested on suspicion of abetting
Kvitsiani
. On September 6, 29 associates of another former national security minister, Igor
Giorgadze
, were arrested; 13 of them were later charged with plotting a coup.
Opposition parties launched a boycott of parliamentary proceedings on March 31 but ended it in late October. The ruling National Movement–Democrats won a huge majority in local elections (originally due in December), held on short notice on October 5.
UN-sponsored talks in
Tbilisi
on May 15 raised hopes of progress in resolving the
Abkhaz
conflict, but on June 1
Abkhazia
rejected a new Georgian peace proposal. The Georgian Parliament voted on July 18 to demand the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping forces from
Abkhazia
and from South Ossetia, where during the summer several people died in explosions and interethnic clashes. South Ossetian
Pres.
Eduard
Kokoity
on November 2 rejected
Saakashvili
's offer of face-to-face talks.
Kokoity
was overwhelmingly reelected on November 12. Ossetian voters expressed overwhelming support in a referendum the same day for seeking international recognition as an independent state.
President
Saakashvili
publicly blamed
Russia
for a January 22 explosion that disrupted Russian natural gas imports. In late March the Russian government imposed a ban on imports of Georgian wine and mineral water. Meetings between
Saakashvili
and Russian
Pres.
Vladimir
Putin
in
St. Petersburg
on June 13 and between the two countries' foreign ministers in
Moscow
in early November failed to defuse tensions in bilateral relations. On October 3
Moscow
imposed a transport blockade on
Georgia
and began deporting Georgian nationals in retaliation for the September 27 arrest of four Russian servicemen in
Tbilisi
on suspicion of espionage. On November 2
Russia
's Gazprom announced that in 2007 it would more than double the price it charged
Georgia
for natural gas.
During
Saakashvili
's visit to
Washington
in early July,
U.S.
Pres.
George W.
Bush
praised
Georgia
's progress in democratization and its pro-Western orientation. On September 21, NATO formally offered
Georgia
"Intensified Dialogue," the next step toward full membership.
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