Georgia accuses Russia of coup plot

Georgia accuses Russia of coup plot
By Isabel Gorst in Moscow
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: May 5 2009 09:53 | Last updated: May 5 2009 11:56
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/75c532b4-3951-11de-b82d-00144feabdc0.html


Georgia accused the Kremlin on Tuesday of backing a planned military coup aimed at bringing the former Soviet country back under the Russian yoke.

Mikheil Saakashvili, president, said Georgia’s national unity was at stake after a mutiny erupted at a military base outside Tbilisi on Tuesday. He said a rebellion at the Mukhrovani base had not yet been brought under control and called on the rebel leaders to give themselves up.

“This is a threat to national security and to every Georgian citizen and we regard it as a very serious incident,” he said in a televised address. He said the mutiny was intended to disrupt a European Union meeting at which Georgia was to be offered membership of the bloc’s Eastern Partnership later this week.

The commanders of several tank battalions declared an uprising at dawn following a swoop by law enforcers on the base on Monday night.

Shota Utiashvili, an interior ministry spokesman, said it appeared that the planned uprising had been “co-ordinated with Russia,” and timed to coincide with the launch of Nato military exercises in Georgia strongly opposed by the Kremlin.

“At minimum [the plan was] aimed at halting the Nato military exercises in Georgia and at maximum a full-scale military uprising in the country,” he said.

Mr Saakashvili, Moscow’s bete noire, said the rebels had “connections with special forces in a specific country known to us”.

“I am asking and demanding from our northern neighbour to refrain from provocations,” he said in a clear reference to Russia.

Last August Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war in which Moscow crushed a Georgian assault on the pro-Russian enclave of South Ossetia, also damping Nato’s appetite for admitting Georgia as a member. Russia is also keen to regain control of transit routes for Caspian oil and gas exports that run through Georgia and bypass Russia.

David Sikharulidze, the Georgian defence minister, said earlier he hoped the uprising would end soon and that the government was “in negotiations” with the rebels – who had not made any specific demands.

Video footage obtained by Georgian law enforcers appeared to show Gia Gvaladze. the former head of the Georgian special Delta security services, plotting the overthrow of the government. “In the event of a successful coup, Russia will once again be united with Russia,” he said.

The Georgian opposition postponed action on Tuesday to block roads leading to Tbilisi earlier planned as part of a month-long rolling protest against the government.

Gia Karkarashvili, a former Georgian minister of defence, alleged that the government had fabricated evidence of the coup.

“Georgia is today in the hands of sick people who write scenarios themselves, act in them and then shoot films and show them to scare society,” he said.

Eka Tkeshelashvili, head of the Georgian security council, said Russian opposition to the Nato military exercises was a “political overreaction”. She said the government was “very concerned” about the risk of a Russian provocation during the Nato exercises that could provoke unrest in Georgia.

Russia has built up its military presence in Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia since the start of opposition protests last month and last week signed an agreement allowing it to take control of the region’s de facto borders with Georgia.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said on Friday that the decision to go ahead with the exercises was wrong and dangerous.

”I want to specifically stress that responsibility for possible negative consequences of these decisions will fully rest on the shoulders of those who made them and carry them out,” he said.