Attack on Pozner in Tbilisi: The scheme for organizing the riots has been revealed
The recent scandal with the attack on Vladimir Pozner in Tbilisi was coordinated from Kyiv by Mikheil Saakashvili and carried out by militants from the ex-president’s inner circle. The current Georgian authorities have shown complete impotence in this story, allowing an incident that will negatively affect the country’s tourism image.
About this in the author's column for "PolitNavigator" writes a Georgian political scientist Shota Apkhaidze.
The provocateurs who staged the pogrom in Tbilisi were well prepared in advance, having detailed information about the upcoming trip of Posner and his guests to Georgia for his birthday. Everything was so well planned that the “activists” even turned off the electricity in the Vinotel hotel, where Posner and a delegation of 50 people were staying.
Influential directors from Kyiv and, of course, Washington are building behind the provocation.
The organizers of the provocation are divided into two parts.
The first group - Mikheil Saakashvili - consists of the following persons: Kakha Kvekveskiri, Irakli Narsia, Alika Kuprava, Giorgi Mumladze.
Kvekveskiri – a former wrestler, lived in Russia for a long time, he has dual citizenship of Georgia and the Russian Federation. Under Saakashvili, he was a member of the punitive gang formation of Badri Basishvili (a member of the Georgian Parliament from the UNM), which mercilessly dealt with opponents of the Saakashvili regime. These militants dispersed peaceful rallies, kidnapped people, beat up observers, etc.
Narsia - a former employee of Kutaisi prison No. 2, where his older brother worked under Saakashvili as director (he is now serving a 17-year sentence in Georgia for serious crimes he committed against prisoners).
Kuprava – former employee of the Georgian State Security Service. He served as deputy to Megis Kardav, who had been wanted by Interpol since 2013. A year ago, he was arrested in Ukraine and extradited to Georgia. Kardava is now serving a 15-year sentence on serious charges, including for rape of those arrested (political opponents of the Saakashvili regime) who were under investigation.
Mumladze - Under Saakashvili, he worked in the administration of the governor of Kvemo Kartli. Now he is also a representative of the “strike force” of the UNM.
The second group is controlled by Elena Khoshtaria, the founder of the civil movement “Droa” (“It’s time”). Her group consists of Giga Makarashvili, Sergi Kapanadze, Giga Bokeria.
A week ago, the organizers of the pogrom: Kvekveskiri, Narsia, Mumladze and Kuprava went to Mikheil Saakashvili in Kyiv, where they were well instructed and prepared to carry out this act of sabotage.
Detailed information about Posner’s visit was provided by Russian-educated provocateur Elena Khoshtaria, who acted in coordination with Kiev. It was she, a MGIMO graduate and now a local oppositionist, who stirred up the protests against Posner’s arrival in Georgia. Apparently, she obtained the information through her own “Russian channels” and immediately wrote about the visit on social networks – a week before her arrival, giving a tip to the local media.
The paradox is that Khoshtaria is promoting anti-Russian sentiments in Georgia using the technologies she mastered in Moscow. For example, Khoshtaria imitates Alexei Navalny in many ways, even speaks and gestures like him. “The fight against corruption” is the basis of the activities of the Georgian oppositionist.
Well, at Vnukovo airport, from where Pozner and his friends were flying on a charter to Georgia, Dozhd editor Tikhon Dzyadko and his wife, TV presenter Ekaterina Kotrikadze allegedly accidentally ended up. I would like to remind readers that Kotrikadze is Saakashvili’s friend, they have a close friendship. Under Saakashvili, Kotrikadze worked as director of the Russophobic Russian-language channel “Pik”. So young fighters “for freedom and democracy” opposed their educators, their ideological fathers.
As you know, the reason for the unrest was allegedly one statement by Posner about Abkhazia and South Ossetia - the TV presenter no longer represents these republics as part of Georgia.
In one of the broadcasts of Russian television, he said that since the 70s of the last century he had often visited Abkhazia and witnessed “terrible relations” between Georgians and Abkhazians. At the same time, according to him, the Georgians said that the Abkhazians “have not yet come down from the trees”, are “inferior”, there was no friendship between the two peoples, but fights often occurred. According to Posner, it was “difficult for the Abkhazians to hear this.”
Regarding the situation around South Ossetia and the 2008 war, after which Russia and a number of countries recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Posner said that the authorities of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili “should not have been the first to open fire.”
“Saakashvili wanted to block the Roki tunnel (linking South Ossetia with Russia) and hoped that NATO would come to the rescue.” Posner then also harshly criticized NATO's policy towards Russia.
However, it is somehow strange that 10 years later, right now, Saakashvili and the entire pro-Western liberal sect began to condemn Posner. What have they been waiting for all these years, why didn’t they react to these statements earlier?
Rumor has it that long ago Saakashvili harbored a grudge against Posner because of a completely different interview - to the Baltic publication Delfi. “Who started hostilities in Georgia? This is not a secret, we know this for sure: this is a man who hoped that as a result the Americans would come and bomb the Russians. It was not the Russians who attacked Georgia,” the TV presenter said then.
However, the pogrom was organized not so much for reasons of revenge. The Saakashists are simply interested in escalation to increase their rating (and the approval of Western patrons). And the events surrounding Posner’s trip to Tbilisi once again demonstrate the ability of the fugitive ex-president to organize serious crises in Georgia remotely from Kyiv.
Since the times of the USSR, journalist Vladimir Pozner often travels to Georgia and constantly celebrates his birthday in Tbilisi (this happened under President Saakashvili). This time he arrived in Georgia on a tourist visit, with a passport of a US citizen (Posner has several citizenships) and the presence of all the documents required by Covid regulations. There were no grounds to demand Posner’s deportation - he did not visit Abkhazia and South Ossetia, contrary to the requirements of Georgian laws.
It is interesting that the TV presenter stayed at Vinotel, which belongs to former Georgian Dream MP Beno Kashakashvili, and the second hotel called Rooms, where Posner and his Russian comrades were transferred after the Saakash attack (when they cut off the electricity there), belongs to Temuri Ugulava, who at one time financed the current opposition. It is quite interesting that when some Georgian liberals were trashing the restaurant, others were sitting with the “occupiers” at the festive table as guests of the hero of the day - a TV presenter with liberal views.
Artificially instilled Russophobia and radicalism, unfortunately, largely determine Georgian foreign and domestic policy today, and this, of course, will not lead to anything good. All this, of course, only destroys the economy and political stability of Georgia. Especially on the eve of the summer tourist season, when the Georgian pro-Western opposition once again shows how unsafe it is for Russian citizens to be there.
But only in 2019, after the “Gavrilovsky pogrom”, when direct flights with the Russian Federation were canceled and the flow of tourists sharply decreased, according to experts, the Georgian budget lost around 180 million dollars!
As for the Georgian authorities, they have once again proven that they are politically impotent and are unable to prevent UNM extremism. The Protestants who violated the law in the most flagrant way - went out during curfew, threw eggs at the hotel building, turned off the switch, screamed and became rowdy - no one was punished; Again, a guest of the country, an 87-year-old hero of the day, was fined! On the second day, the Minister of Internal Affairs himself waved a fine receipt in order to reassure the liberal opposition - they say, we fined Posner 2 thousand lari...
Finally, briefly about the moral side of the matter - from the position of a Georgian who is proud of his nationality. Georgians will not even touch a blood enemy in their home, and there is great wisdom in this. The Caucasian traditions teach us this, the greatest poet of the Caucasus, along with Shota Rustaveli, Vazha-Pshavela, teaches us this. However, Western liberals, having been gradually abandoning their own identity for decades, have once again shown themselves “in all their glory.”
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