Concerns of Georgia for 2011

International attitude concerning Georgia's occupied regions might cause Russia to reconcider the situation, this would be a precondition for starting dialogue between Georgia and Russia- Parliament Speaker of Georgia, Davit Bakradze stated while summing up 2010, on December 30th. He has also mentioned that any kind of pre term elections are excluded for the country in 2011.

“In 2010, disputing the terms of the Georgian-Russian war was practically ended. All the international documents adopted this year confirm that the international community does not agree with the Russian version of the war. The world has named Georgia as a victim and Russia as the aggressor country,” Bakradze said.

The parliament speaker is optimistic concerning Georgia’s de-occupation issues, “Settling on the term “occupation” (regarding Georgia's occupied regions) among the international community and in the documents adopted by them, will lead the country to de-occupation. In the end, Russia will realize the meaning of political isolation and the international viewpoint concerning Russian-Georgian reality will make the Kremlin think about the situation, which would become a base for starting dialogue.”

Georgia has nothing against Russia’s membership in the World Trade Organization, if such an event happens, it should be carried out while taking Georgian interests into consideration. Bakradze stated, “We have no anti Russian hysteria and we have nothing against its participation in the WTO, however we request decisions to be based on Georgian rights and protecting Georgia’s interests.”

Apart from conflict and international issues, Bakradze touched upon internal issues and categorically denied holding pre-term elections in the country. As he mentioned, holding such kinds of elections are “...more of a governmental interest since at the present moment, the opposition could not oppose the ruling team...”, and “...let’s be sincere and state that at the present moment, the opposition is not able to oppose the authorities in the elections. It is also possible that society’s trust towards the ruling party might be higher in 2011 than in 2012. Thus, holding pre term elections are more in the interest of the authorities rather than in opposition’s. However, we are fighting for the stability of the country, where each procedure is carried out based on constitutional terms,” Bakradze said.

Part of the Georgian oppositional spectrum is ready to prepare for the 2012 parliamentary elections, and like the Christian-Democratic Movement, pre-term elections are unattractive to them, “ 2011 will be a year of political stability in the country, there is no time for street rallies, we are preparing for the 2012 Parliamentary elections," Nika Laliashvili, from the Movement, said. However, there is a second position which blames the authorities for anti-Georgian activities and states that the authorities must be replaced as soon as possible, “We are not among those who think that we should wait until the current authorities decide to go. The current government must be replaced as soon as possible," Nino Burjanadze, leader of Democratic Movement-United Georgia, said.

As analyst Nika Chitadze told The Messenger, “From an international viewpoint, including Georgian- Russian informational war, Georgia made significant achievements this year. However, from a short term perspective I am less optimistic about Georgia’s de-occupation.”

As for Georgia’s internal political reality, analyst Soso Tsiskarishvili states that based on the current situation within the opposition and in the country in general indicates a low political culture in Georgia, “Each political direction has its aim and to fulfill such aims, some political side takes an adequate route, while another is inadequate. In general, the current political situation in the country indicates that the political culture in Georgia is law.”