Georgian People must be sober and take all precautions necessary to follow the chosen path and sign the landmark pact -- Nikoloz Vashakidze

On 27 June, Georgia is expected to sign the EU Association pact; in relation to this subject InterPressNews sat down with the former secretary of Foreign Affairs, Nikoloz Vashakidze, to discuss the threats that prior to the signing the deal, Georgia may face not only inside the country but also outside its borders.

-- June 27 has been fixed as the date which will mark the signing of the landmark pact and Georgia’s integration within the EU. In light of the fact that Russia has remained a key roadblock to Georgia and Moldova’s path to the EU, it would be rational if we discuss the threats that Russia is expected to pose against us before completing the EU accord. In your opinion, what kind of steps will Russia take in relation to Georgia? We have been left with the impression that the issue of Ukraine has not let the Russian leader deal with Georgia so far…

- The EU has paced up the process of completing the landmark agreement with Georgia, and I do think that the key reason having prompted it to take this step is Russia. As you know, first the deal was scheduled to be finalized in autumn; as long as the date was put forward, I do think that Russia has not been left enough time to take some radical measures with respect to Georgia. Thus, I do hope that finally we will manage to sign this pact. Although this obviously does not mean that Russia will restrain from piling pressure on us to make us scrap the deal. Some risks are posed against us; however, they are not impossible to be handled.

As for the dangers posed to us, today we may face both, foreign and domestic threats; against the backdrop of Ukraine’s developments, Russia will find it cumbersome to take military actions in Georgia. However, inside the country the Russian leader has inserted his agents, the so-called Fifth Column representatives that have recently started taking extremely active steps.

They have recently nurtured an immensely unpleasant narrative which has been repeatedly resounded among the Georgian people; this narrative says that Europe is a hub of extreme debauchery and dissoluteness, and dissipated and vicious Europeans strain to mire its neighboring states, including Georgia in this disgusting and reeking mire. As for Russia, the Russian agents try to make an exhibition of it by labeling it as an immensely moralistic and unblemished country with immaculate reputation, the country which aims to take small nations under its wing and, in this way, ward off any lethal threats. It’s an extremely primitive narrative but, unfortunately, the vast majority of our people are at such a low level of development that they easily jump at the evil bait cast by Russians.

This topic is being systematically propagated; the Russian agents, i.e., the Fifth Column are actively involved in this process; and if we look at the present developments from a broader angle, we will deduce that all this is favorable for us as it will lead a number of people to self –lustration.

May 17 is near; and I do not exclude that our country will be thrown into disarray again; as far as I know, some pro-Russian Eurasian forces have financed LGBTs’ protest rallies to heighten tensions in Georgia and, in this way, hamper us from signing the EU accord. This is absolutely a key threat with which we are faced today; and, thus, the Public must be sober and take all precautions necessary to follow the chosen path and sign the pact; and I do hope that we will succeed in doing this.

- Russia’s Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin, has made stentorian statements about Moldova’s European prospects. In addition, we have found out that only Gagauzia, Moldova’s autonomous region that is crusading against Kishinev’s decision to move closer to Europe, has been allowed to import Moldavian wine to Russia. Against this background, do Georgia’s products stand a chance to be removed from Russia’s market?

- Such kind of threats will always be posed to us if Russia does not change its stance in terms of Georgia. That is the reason why, once again I repeat that the actuation of trade relations with Russia is not auspicious for us nowadays. Today we have already seen that a number of businessmen as well as some other inpiduals are dependent on these trade relations with Russia; this extreme dependence can serve as another form of political leverage in Russia’s hands. And this lever can easily be set into motion at crunch time. In fact, this is a long-term prospect, and today Georgia must make an all-out effort to persify its economy as well as export. As a matter of fact, when Russia raised the embargo against Georgia’s mineral waters and wine, Georgia took some steps in this direction and this turned out to be propitious for our economy. Our businessman paved their way to a number of such country’s markets which we would not have even dreamt about in the past. Thus, even without the Russian market, we are able to successfully export our wine to different states. This was an immensely great challenge to us though. Fortunately we have managed to negotiate it; today the export of our mineral waters is not, in fact, dependent on the Russian market. However, the same cannot really be stated regarding wine . . . anyway, the Georgian Government must redouble its efforts to ship its products to different countries and to find its niche on their markets.

-- How reliable seems an allegation from some Russian experts that Georgia’s inclination to NATO is what annoys Russia and not our desire to move closer to the EU. Moreover, as they state, the EU member Georgia will be more attractive for the Russian businessmen, who are expected to carry out investments in our country with more gusto . . .

-The aforementioned message is being conveyed by the Russian leadership and not the experts. Judging superficially, we can conclude that the Russian political upper crust has detected certain military threats in our aspiration to move closer NATO, while they have not perceived such threats when it comes to EU. However, if looking at this issue from a broader angle, we will guess that this is a false supposition; Russia simply has thought that our integration within the EU will never be pushed to the top of their agenda. However, when the newly emerged status quo proved the opposite and dashed Russia’s hopes, they showed their clear-cut negative disposition to our aspiration to Europe. The Russian authorities have not even held back from making some countries, such as Ukraine and Armenia, veer from the path to NATO.

Hence, Russia’s arguments are totally inconsistent with its taken steps… The Russian leader has outlined an extremely well-formulated plan to turn the clock back to the Soviet past by restoring the powerhouse Russian empire, and the former SU states’ overarching aspiration to stay out of Russia’s reach can make the goal impracticable; that is why today Russia is making an arduous effort to pull these states back to its orbit.

-- How big is a chance that anti-European political forces will use the local elections of 15 May as a pretext to destabilize the situation in the country in order to thwart us in signing the EU agreement?

- If we keep a close eye on some political steps they take in the run-up to each election, we will easily conclude that the anti-European powers have drawn up two plans – if these people succeed in realizing the first plan they will win a seat in the elections; if they fail to sweep enough votes, they will follow their second plan and will exert a quadrupled effort to destabilize the situation in the country by declaring the elections rigged. Under the present rule, we do really have pretence to worry as no one knows whether they Government will take measures to control the situation in the country.

-- As President the European council, MR Van Rompuy, declared, at the landmark event of 27 June, he is waiting for PM Gharibashvili, with whom they plan to finalize the EU deal. We do get that as per our constitution, the PM is the country’s chief executive but as the same constitution says, only President is entitled to complete international deals. You probably remember that Free Trade Agreement was signed by Mr. Margvelashvili; in your opinion, what made them to even more expand the PM’s authority?

- Legally, each and every high official specifically so authorized by Georgia’s legitimate Government is entitled to sign the EU pact. However, as per our constitution, the President is the chief executive of the country despite the fact that his authority has been extremely reduced. Thus, it would be more reasonable if the president signed this deal. Although, we all know that some grave problems exist inside our Government today. The Premier and the Government are at loggerheads with the President and his entourage; its without question that these political spats are immensely detrimental for our country.

And the present status quo strongly suggests that the only way out from this blind alley is the President and Premier’s strong determination to put an end to these ridiculous political tit-for-tats and peacefully cohabitate with each other. And don’t be ashamed to utter the word “Cohabitation;” as in the present state of play only cohabitation can lead us out of this extremely critical situation.

Koba Bendeliani

InterPressNews