Does Michael Saakashvili play for an advance?

PanARMENIAN.Net - According to the leader of the Armenian Community in Tbilisi Arnold Stepanyan, the aim of the people who have held meetings on Rustaveli Avenue, was more to speak against Saakashvili rather than to support Okruashvili, who is no better than the current President of Georgia. "About 4.000 people were present at the meeting," said Stepanyan and added, "people do not count on any good by the change of one dictator with another". It should be mentioned that this meeting was the largest anti-governmental action since 2003, when Michael Saakashvili came to power in the result of "revolution of roses".

However let's turn back to the disgraced brother-in-arms. Most likely, Michael Saakashvili will soon get rid of all those people who helped him realize the "revolution of roses". After the Zurab Zhvani's death committed in very mysterious circumstances the Minister of Foreign Affairs Salomé Zourabichvili, Minister Ivlian Khaindrava, and after all Irakli Okruashvili resigned. In fact, Saakashvili is getting rid of potential rivals for the Presidential Elections and in this case he follows the example of colleague Ilham Aliyev, who acts and will always act in a similar way. On September 28 the City Court of Tbilisi sentenced the country's former Minister of Defence Irakli Okruashvili to two-month imprisonment in Rustav prison N 6. One of his followers, the former representative of President of Georgia in Shida region of Kartli Michael Kareli who had been arrested earlier is in the same prison.

Irakli Okruashvili was arrested on October 27 in the downtown Tbilisi in the office of his newly established oppositional movement "For United Georgia". The Office of Public Prosecutor brought an accusation against him according to four articles of the criminal code of Georgia; 181 - blackmail, 194 - money-grubbing, 332 - abuse of position, and 342 - working negligence. The arrested faces 25-year-imprisonment. Earlier Okruashvili made several breaking announcements, where he accused President of Georgia Michael Saakashvili of unlawful acts. In particular the former Minister of Defence on his appearance on TV accused the President of having organized the murder of several "influential figures" of the country. The accusations were qualified by the official authorities as "groundless and false".

It should be mentioned that Saakashvili's political rivals in general are weak and haven't posed any serious threat for him so far. Democrat rules with an "iron hand". However, as the experts believe over the last several months Irakli Okruashvili has gained political power and may make an influential political figure. His arrest united the uncoordinated oppositional parties as well as gave the inhabitants the possibility to express their opinion about the never ending problems of the country. The most interesting thing is that Michael Saakashvili's actions immediately received support from US Department of States. "The details of the arrest of Irakli Okruashvili are not known to me. I think that it is connected with some criminal rather than politics. This is connected with getting things put in order in the country. The final verdict will be reached by the court. If the society has any doubts the investigation must be carried out with more carefulness and scrupulousness," announced Matthew Bryza, US Deputy Assistant Secretary. According to him the superiority of law, the court and law machinery of Georgia become more and more powerful.

By the way, Saakashvili himself, who had flown to New York before his former brother-in-arms, accused him of corruption and organizing political murders returned to Georgia. Most likely Okruashvili's arrest will not be the last one, for elections are to be held in a year only, which is a sufficient period to settle accounts with all the rivals having the strong support from US State Department.