Cabinet Reshuffle in Georgia

Lado Chipashvili, the minister for healthcare, labor and social welfare, has been dismissed in a cabinet reshuffle, Dimitri Kitoshvili, the president’s spokesperson, said on August 29.

Chipashvili, he said, would be replaced by the current minister of environment, Davit Tkeshelashvili, whose position would in turn be filled by his deputy, Davit Chantladze.

Chipashvili will be appointed as Georgia’s ambassador to the Czech Republic. “The current ambassador to the Czech Republic, Kakha Sikharulidze, will be appointed to an important position in the Foreign Ministry,” Kitoshvili said. [More]

Russian peacekeepers released in Georgia

Eight Russian peacekeepers released by Georgian military police have now returned to their base. On Tuesday, they were arrested after their truck collided with a passenger bus near the Abkhazian border. [More]

NATO, Georgia to share radars in 2007

Georgia's radars will probably be integrated into NATO's radar system by the end of this year, earlier than planned because of worries about Russian activities, the Georgian Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

"Recent incidents prompted discussions in Brussels, at NATO headquarters, to speed up these procedures, so that Georgia is incorporated into that system as soon as possible," Georgian Deputy Defence Minister Batu Kuteliya told Reuters. "They should probably be finished late this autumn." [More]

Russia-Georgia dispute escalates

Just as relations between Russia and the post-Soviet nation of Georgia were improving from their nadir last year, a bizarre phantom air war this month has unleashed mutually hostile rhetoric and escalated tensions.

For almost a month, Georgia has complained that Russian fighter jets have made incursions into its airspace. Most recently, it said that its forces fired on an intruding Russian plane near the breakaway republic of Abkhazia last week. The republic, a Russian protectorate claimed by Georgia under international law, is a point of contention between the two countries.

But a top Russian general scoffed that his Georgian colleagues must be "hallucinating" since, he insisted, no Russian warplanes have flown anywhere near Georgia. Kremlin officials have repeatedly suggested that Georgian hard-liners, seeking a pretext for military action against Abkhazia and another rebel statelet, South Ossetia, may be "fabricating" the incidents. [More]

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Visits Georgia

Elmar Mammadyarov, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, paid a two day visit to Batumi on 26 August, the Georgian Foreign Ministry announced. Cultural events will be organized in honour of the minister in Batumi. He will visit the autonomous republic of Ajaria and its capital Batumi.

On 27 August at 1pm the Government of Ajaria will host an official meeting between the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister and his Georgian counterpart Gela Bezhuashvili. “The sides will discuss a range of issues concerning bilateral cooperation, security in the region, including cooperation within the framework of GUAM,” she noted.

The spokesman neither confirmed nor rejected reports on the opening of an Azerbaijani consulate in Batumi. [More]

Georgia on His Mind: an Interview with Mikheil Saakashvili

On Aug. 8, a missile the size of a bus struck near a village some 50 miles north of this Eurasian country's capital city, Tbilisi. It failed to explode. In all likelihood the missile came from Russian jet fighters violating Georgian airspace, as Georgians quickly claimed--the incident was eerily similar to one in March, when Russian attack helicopters flew at night and, without provocation, fired missiles into Georgian territory.

In both cases, Georgian authorities showed the world radar flight path data as proof. The world did nothing the first time, and will likely do nothing again. Meanwhile, unexplained incursions continue daily. This is the kind of near-lethal brinkmanship which Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili believes will only encourage more belligerence from Russia.

Mr. Saakashvili has spent his first 3 1/2 years in office impelling his country forward economically, courting NATO and European Union membership, eradicating corruption and trying to woo Russian-supported secessionists back into the fold. Above all, he strives daily to keep his country, with a population of four million, on the mind of Western nations so its security and success will seem synonymous with theirs--and keep the Russians at bay. The Russians still seem to perceive post-Soviet Georgian independence as a kind of betrayal, responding with an array of destabilizing policies, such as the imposition of embargoes on Georgian goods.

Click [here] for Melik Kaylan's interview with the Georgian president.

Georgia says it fired at Russian aircraft

Georgian forces fired at a Russian plane flying over Georgian territory earlier this week, a government official said Friday, claiming residents nearby reported an explosion and fire afterward. Russia immediately denied the claim. [More]