The complicated relations between Russia and Georgia have led to predictable and unpredictable results. A number of groups have appeared in Russia (especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg) wearing coats with the words “I am Georgian” written on them. “This is against the policy of pressuring Georgians”, say the members of those groups, who look like Slovenians and nothing like Georgians. Even some young people in St. Petersburg have changed the ending of their surnames to Georgian surnames (“shvili”, “idze”) as a sign of protest against the policy. Definitely the most interesting thing is the fact that famous actor Stanislav Sadalski accepted the suggestion of Saakashvili to become a citizen of Georgia.
This information was confirmed by chairman of the Georgian parliament Zurab Pataradze. “Stanislav Sadalski has decided to apply for obtaining Georgian citizenship because he wants to protect the Georgians and do what he can. We have taken that application under consideration and will forward it to Georgia for consideration later”. Anyway, the political crisis has led to consequences that hadn’t been foreseen and now Georgia is trying to figure out the number of the Georgians that had to obtain Russian or another citizenship under certain circumstances. Armenia sees the results that the Russian embargo had on Georgian products. Bread and salt prices have increased and food products have generally increased by 1.2% in a week. Experts say that the prices will continue growing as long as there is no alternative to solving the political issue and bring back all that has been lost. Countries such as Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan may have more power than Russia. This has never happened and it is not clear whether it will happen generally or not. The companies that are involved in wholesale trade are suffering huge losses. For example, the Georgian “Populi” company used to have over 7000 types of products, 30-35% of which was imported to Russia. Currently, that company has a deficit of some products and it is logical that the company look for other ways to bring back the losses. Besides that, the Russian market will not be open for Georgia anytime soon since it is not profitable to make trade with Russia through other countries; furthermore, the political crisis between these two states may not be settled soon either.
Last week, Russian president Vladimir Putin answered to journalists’ questions in Finland, where he said that Russia was not to blame for the situation at hand. The Russian president petitioned the separating states in Georgia to live peacefully in a united country and the international community to not let people kill each other in Abkhazia and South Osia.
Afterwards, Tbilisi started complaining again. The Georgian foreign affairs minister, Gela Bejuashvili said that the Russian president had misconstrued the facts and added that they didn’t think that the president of such a powerful country would give the wrong information to leaders of European countries. As for Mikhail Saakashvili, he compared Putin’s announcement with an announcement made by former Russian defense minister Pavel Grachyov. “I remembered the announcement of general Grachyov, who said that the Georgians had painted their own planes and attacked their own cities and the Russians had not done anything there. We are not living in the year 1993, but rather 2006. The leader of the country is not Shevardnadze, but Saakashvili, and the country is different too. Now Europe is different too; it has brought the issue concerning Georgian-Russian relations into the light, in contrast to several years ago when Europe didn’t even know where Georgia was on the map.” Saakashvili has said several times that he is ready to meet with Putin anytime. Maybe this meeting will take place during the upcoming CIS summit in Astana. However, it may not take place or may not be effective once again. This is the reason why the Georgian president is speaking to the international community, which, as specialists say, will not help make relations with Russia even more complicated and protect Georgia because after all, Georgia still depends on Russia for energy resources; furthermore, the U.S. will not get into a conflict with Russia with the purpose of protecting Georgia because it depends on Russia to help solve the South Korean and Iranian issues.