Georgian president drives himself to the airport in electric car in bid to dispel anger over opulent lifestyle... and his wife is his BODYGUARD (DAILY MAIL; 2 MAR 2013)

• President Mikheil Saakashvili filmed driving to Tbilisi airport in modest car
• Accompanied by wife as 'security' ahead of an official visit to Azerbaijan
• His 'opulent lifestyle' saw him build a palace in Tbilisi and purchase two jets 

He may be more used to being whisked across town in an armoured limousine - flanked by jeeps laden with security. 

But Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has proven he is just like the rest of us - by taking a lift to Tbilisi airport in a modest urban hatchback, with just his wife as his protection. 

Mr Saakashvili drove the car - his own personal vehicle - to the airport ahead of an official visit to neighbouring Azerbaijan, to prove a political point amid criticism over his opulent lifestyle. 

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been filmed driving himself to the airport ahead of a state visit with only his Dutch-born wife, Sandra Roelofs, for security

Georgian Rivals Saakashvili, Ivanishvili Meet In Tbilisi (Radio Free Europe; 4 MAR 2013)

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his political rival Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili have met in Tbilisi for talks about their differences. 

Saakashvili said it was a positive step to have face-to-face talks -- the second such meeting since Saakashvili’s party lost legislative elections to Ivanishvili’s coalition in October 2012.

Saakashvili also reiterated his promise not to dissolve parliament.

Ivanashvili dismissed the talks as a meeting for the sake of having a meeting.

He said there was no prearranged agenda but that Saakashvili asked for less pressure on Georgia’s media and courts.

Georgian Foreign Minister Optimistic Over Talks With Russia (RADIO FREE EUROPE; 1 MAR 2013)

Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze has told journalists she is hopeful that the second round of talks on the normalization of Russia-Georgia relations will be "productive and fruitful." 

The meeting between Georgia's special envoy for relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin started in Prague on March 1.

The first round of talks was held in Geneva in December.

Tbilisi broke off diplomatic ties with Moscow after the August 2008 war over Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia.

After that, Moscow recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Georgia's other separatist region, Abkhazia.

Karasin said ahead of his visit to Prague that issues related to the separatist regions of Georgia would not be discussed at the talks.

Based on reporting by ITAR-TASS and Interfax

To go to the link CLICK HERE

Georgia: Misha Insists on Do-It-Yourself Bodyguard Service (Eurasianet.org; 1 MAR 2013)

With all the dramatic flair of a silent movie star, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili sent his security detail home the other day, later saying he needs no bodyguard other than his Dutch-born wife, Sandra Roelofs. He then sat down in his tiny blue electric carand drove himself and the First Lady to the Tbilisi airport for an official trip to Baku.

But after coming back from Azerbaijan, the president found a convoy of security vehicles waiting for him at the airport, as if they were never dismissed. The big black SUVs, dispatched by the government, followed home the little presidential Nissan Leaf, which resolutely ignored them.

President Saakashvili and Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili have fought over speeches, arrests, constitutional changes and more. So, it should come as no surprise that they are now fighting over whether or not the president will have bodyguards.

Since last year's parliamentary elections, most components of the presidential security service-- like most of Georgia's government agencies -- have been taken over by the prime minister’s office. In turn, the president claims that the prime minister's people have been bringing pressure to bear on his personal bodyguards, so that he was compelled to relinquish the reported 350-person team altogether.

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway Meetup: Today in Istabul (Argophilia; 1 MAR 2013)

This year’s meeting of the Tripartite Council for the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway Project is to be held in Istanbul starting today.  The railway, a joint Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish inter-state affair, is heavily funded by the Azerbaijan State Oil Fund, and of mutual benefit to all the partners.

Map of the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway - courtesy Wikipedia

According to the news bit, some $431.3 million has already been allocated toward the completion of the Georgian sector of the railway. Among other key discussions, the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway reconstruction will add some 15 million tons of capacity to the cargo aspect of the rail endeavor there.

A planned centre in Akhalkalaki for the transition trains from the Georgian rails to the European system is also a fundamental hurdle to be solved. The peak capacity of the rail line will be roughly 17 million tons of cargo represented by a million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo. A tunnel under the Bosporus to access Europe is also being projected.

Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili, and Azerbaijan’s Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov, are slated to attend. And all the positives of the rail construction, some experts (PDF) point out Armenia being further isolated by such a direct and exlcusive line being developed. Geopolitical issues still hamper the PR of the railway, yet the overall connective features cannot be denied.

http://www.argophilia.com/news/baku-tbilisi-kars-railway/28454/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Argophilia+%28Argophilia+Travel+News%29

South Caucasus: IOC Bid to Eliminate Wrestling Stokes Concern (Eurasianet.org; 1 MAR 2013)

The International Olympic Committee’s proposal to boot wrestling from the 2020 Summer Olympic Games is creating waves in the South Caucasus, especially in Georgia, where the sport is known for producing medals and glory.

In the years since the Soviet Union’s collapse, Olympic programs in former Soviet republics like Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have struggled to revive their former moxie. The wrestling mat has been one of the few areas in which the countries have remained competitive at the Olympic level.

At the London Games in 2012, for example, Georgia won six Olympic medals in wrestling events. For Armenia and Azerbaijan, the sport is also important: Azerbaijani wrestlers brought home seven of the country’s 10 Olympic medals, including two golds, and Armenian wrestlers gained two of Armenia’s three medals.

Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia are unlikely to fare as well in any of the sports suggested by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on February 12 as alternatives to wrestling. Former Georgian wrestler Gabriel Barjadze, author of a history of Georgian wrestling, contends that an Olympics without wrestling would be “fatal” for Georgia.
“Half of our Olympic champions are wrestlers. We have 16 Olympic wrestling champions and 34 Olympic champions, total,” Barjadze said.

Stalin's Legacy: Ethnic Time Bombs That Continue To Tick(RADIO FREE EUROPE;

Eighty-one-year-old Nikolai Khasig was born in Sukhumi in 1932. It was just one year after Soviet dictator Josef Stalin stripped Abkhazia of its short-lived status as a full-fledged republic of the USSR and made it a region of Soviet Georgia. 

At the end of 1936, Lavrenty Beria -- at that time the head of the Transcaucasia region and later the sadistic head of Stalin's secret police -- invited the popular Abkhaz leader Nestor Lakoba to dinner at his house in Tbilisi. Lakoba died suddenly -- officially, of a heart attack, but it was widely believed that the former revolutionary comrade of Stalin's had been poisoned.

In the repressions that began in 1937, the entire Abkhaz government was arrested and subjected to show trials. Soviet archives later revealed that Beria had ordered them all executed before the trials even began. Collectivization came to Abkhazia with a vengeance. Soviet publications began arguing that the Abkhaz were actually of Georgian origin in the first place.

Officials Say Moscow Could Ease Visa Rules For Georgians( RADIO FREE EUROPE; 2 MAR 2013)

Russian and Georgian officials say Moscow is considering easing visa rules for Georgian citizens. 

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Georgia's special representative for relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze, made the statement on March 1 after meeting in the Czech capital, Prague.

"Recently, we have expanded the possibilities for different categories of Georgian citizens to visit the Russian Federation," Karasin said. "We shall try to figure out how else we can ease the regime."

Abashidze said no time frame for the intiative had been specified during the talks.

Diplomatic relations were severed by Tbilisi after Moscow recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008.

Georgia's new parliament, elected in October, named normalizing relations with Russia as one of the top priorities of its foreign policy.

Based on reporting by Voice of Russia, Civil.ge, and ITAR-TASS

http://www.rferl.org/content/georgia-russia-visa-negotiations/24917108.html?

Russian, Georgian Envoys Talk Visas, Olympics, Transport(RIA NEWS; 2 MAR 2013)

MOSCOW, March 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin met with Georgian prime minister’s special envoy on Russia, Zurab Abashidze in Prague on Friday to discuss visa regime, Georgia’s participation at the2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, wine exports to Russia, direct flights between Moscow and Tbilisi and other issues.

“Both sides are satisfied with the results [of the meeting], they are convinced that our unofficial contacts have a future. We tentatively agreed to hold the next meeting in May. Its location will be discussed later, but it might be Prague,” Karasin said after the talks.

He described the meeting as “constructive,” saying that it allowed making a step forward on a number of practical issues, such as the visa regime and resumption of direct flights between the two states.