#Mikheil Saakashvili

[almanach-international]

9 avril : la Journée de l’unité nationale en Géorgie

Ce 9 avril est le 35e anniversaire de la répression sanglante d’une manifestation anti-soviétique dans les rues de Tbilissi. Depuis 1992, cette date est un jour férié dénommé Journée de l'Unité nationale (ეროვნული ერთიანობის დღე).

Le 4 avril 1989, des dizaines de milliers de Géorgiens s’étaient rassemblées pour une manifestation pacifique et des grèves de la faim exigeant le rétablissement de l'indépendance géorgienne. Voyant qu’elles perdaient le contrôle de la situation les autorités de la république soviétique de Géorgie ont fait appel à l’armée et demandé l’évacuation de, l’avenue Roustavéli, l’artère centrale de la capitale. Les manifestants ont refusé de se disperser. Le 9 avril, à 3h45 du matin, les troupes soviétiques dirigées par le général Igor Rodionov encerclèrent la zone de manifestation. Leur mission était de faire évacuer les lieux par tous les moyens. L’intervention a provoqué 21 morts et plusieurs centaines de blessés, certains empoisonnés avec du gaz d’une composition inconnue. Les organisateurs des manifestation, dont Zviad Gamsakhourdia et Merab Kostava, ont été arrêtés et un couvre-feu a été décrété à Tbilissi.

Le « Dimanche sanglant » du 9 avril, entraînera la démission du gouvernement et radicalisera l'opposition géorgienne au pouvoir Soviétique. Quelques mois plus tard, une session du Conseil suprême de la RSS de Géorgie, les 17 et 18 novembre 1989, va officiellement condamner l'occupation et l'annexion de Géorgie par la Russie soviétique en 1921.

Le 9 avril est la date qui a été retenue pour la proclamation, par Zviad Gamsakhourdia, de la souveraineté et de l’indépendance de la Géorgie en 1991, précédant de quelques semaines celle de la Russie puis la disparition de l’URSS, en décembre de la même année. Le 31 mars 1991, les Géorgiens avaient voté massivement (99% de oui avec 90% de participation) en faveur de l'indépendance de leur pays.

Toutefois, en dépit de son appellation, le 9 avril est loin d’être toujours une journée d’unité nationale. En 2009, le 9 avril avait notamment été choisi par une coalition de partis d'opposition pour contester la gouvernance de Mikheil Saakashvili pour le forcer la démission.

Selon la présidente Salomé Zurabishvili, la victoire du 9 avril (1991) se manifeste dans le fait que la Géorgie rétablie comme successeur légitime de l'État de 1918. « Tout le monde a gagné : les cadets de 1921, les officiers fusillés de 1923 et le patriarche Ambroise de Géorgie, les rebelles de 1922, 1923, 1924 et bien sûr les héros du 9 avril et Zviad Gamsakhourdia », a-t-elle ajouté dans un discours prononcé le 9 avril 2021.

L’Unité nationale n’est toujours pas à l’ordre du jour : la Géorgie est aujourd’hui très divisée entre une part importante de l’opinion publique, appuyée par la présidente Salomé Zurabishvili, qui pousse le pays à se rapprocher de l’Occident et le gouvernement ouvertement pro Kremlin qui s’aligne sur la législation russe, mettant à mal la démocratie.

Un article de l'Almanach international des éditions BiblioMonde, 8 avril 2024

[timesofocean]

Thousands rally in Georgia to push government on EU membership

New Post has been published on https://www.timesofocean.com/rally-in-georgia-to-push-government-on-eu-membership/

Thousands rally in Georgia to push government on EU membership

Belgrade, Serbia (The Times Groupe) – The Georgian capital Tbilisi was filled with thousands of protesters calling on the government to maintain the country’s EU membership course. GEORGIA

On Sunday, demonstrators gathered outside the parliament and urged the government to implement the necessary reforms to integrate Georgia into the European Union.

A rally was organized by the United National Movement (UNM), the main opposition party founded by jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.

They chanted slogans for closer ties with the EU as they waved Georgian and EU flags.

As well as banners supporting Saakashvili, who is serving a six-year prison sentence for abuse of power, protesters also condemned Russia.

UNM opposition leaders accused the government of backsliding on democracy and acting under Russian influence.

As a result of not meeting the EU’s 12-point criteria, the government of Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili failed to secure Georgia’s EU candidate status last year.

After Ukraine applied for EU membership on Feb. 28, just four days after Russia launched its first attack, Georgia and Moldova applied on March 3 last year.

The EU Commission granted candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova on June 17, but said Georgia’s bid would be reassessed once it met the bloc’s criteria. Times of ocean TIBLISN

[sauolasa]

Mikheil Saakashvili drasticamente debilitato. Zelensky: "Fatelo tornare in Ucraina"

L'ex presidente georgiano Mikheil Saakashvili è apparso drasticamente debilitato durante una testimonianza in video conferenza presso il tribunale di Tblisi. Volodymyr Zelensky ha lanciato un appello per chiedere alla Georgia di far tornare il cittadino ucraino a casa per le necessarie cure mediche

[gusty-wind]

USAID is Connected to Biden Threat to Ukraine Over Burisma Investigation + Ukraine Coup

Here's the $1 Billion loan Biden used to threaten Ukraine if they didn't fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin who was investigating Burisma corruption

Here's the full thread

"Ya'll remember when Joe Biden bragged about withholding that "$1 billion loan guarantee" to Ukraine in exchange until the prosecutor investigating Burisma was fired??

That was USAID.

That is how Nuland and her cronies at the State Department were able to fund the Maidan and overthrow the Yanukovich administration, which was favorable to a relationship with Russia, THEIR NEIGHBOR, in exchange for a US-Friendly regime.

THAT is how Mikheil Saakashvili went from Georgian President for two terms to Ukraine's Odessa Oblast governor (after, of course, being educated in the United States).

This was the single greatest blow in the battle against the Deep State to date."

[zvaigzdelasas]

[NYTimes is Private US Media]

On Saturday, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the governing Georgian Dream party, who built his fortune in banking, metals and real estate in Russia, said that the people of South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in the 1990s and expanded with Russian support in 2008, should receive an apology for the war that eventually broke out.

His comments at a rally in Gori, a town that was briefly occupied by Russian forces in 2008, were quickly condemned by pro-Western activists and the opposition. They also highlighted how Georgia’s relationship with the West has deteriorated over the past months.

On Monday, the United States announced that it had imposed sanctions against two Georgian officials and two activists associated with a pro-Russian political group that it said were involved in violent suppression of protests this year.[...]

In a statement, Mikheil Saakashvili, who was Georgia’s president at the time of the 2008 war [and Governor of the Odesa Oblast in Ukraine from May 2015 until November 2016, before being stripped of Ukrainian Citizenship], called Mr. Ivanishvili’s statement “an unprecedented betrayal” and “an insult to the memory of the heroes who sacrificed for our country.”

“He asked Georgians to apologize for the invader,” said Mr. Saakashvili, who is serving a six-year sentence in Georgia on charges related to abuse of power that he says were politically motivated.[...]

In 2009, an independent fact-finding mission set up by the European Union found that the war was initiated by “a sustained Georgian artillery attack” that was not “justifiable under international law” but that “much of the Russian military action went far beyond the reasonable limits of defense.” The report also accused all sides, including separatist formations, of violating international humanitarian law.[...]

Mr. Ivanishvili, who entered Georgian politics in the early 2010s, promised a “Nuremberg trial” against members of the United National Movement, a pro-Western party that was in power during the 2008 war, after parliamentary elections next month.

After the elections, he said, “all the perpetrators of the destruction of the Georgian-Ossetian brotherhood and coexistence will receive the strictest legal response.” He called the opposition “criminals” and “traitors” who “in 2008 burned our Ossetian sisters and brothers in flames.”

“We will definitely find strength in ourselves to apologize,” said Mr. Ivanishvili, who is officially an honorary chairman of the governing party, but who is widely believed to be its shadow leader.[...]

In May, defying large-scale protests, the Georgian government passed a law that aims to limit the influence of pro-Western nongovernmental groups and media outlets in the country.

16 Sep 24

[deadpresidents]

Everyone knows about Lincoln and Garfield and McKinley and Kennedy, the quartet of America Presidents who fell victim to assassination. Even the most casual observers of Presidential history can probably name the four Presidents who were murdered while in office, and many even know the names of the four assassins responsible for their deaths: Booth, Guiteau, Czolgosz, and Oswald.

There have also been quite a few (in)famous unsuccessful assassination attempts, where Presidents barely escaped with their lives, that many Americans are familiar with, including (but not limited to):

•Richard Lawrence's miraculously unlucky double misfire on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in 1835 which left Andrew Jackson unharmed but resulted in Lawrence -- who would be found not guilty by reason of insanity -- getting viciously pummeled by the cane-wielding President Jackson until Davy Crockett intervened to save the would-be assassin from the 67-year-old President. •The shooting of former President Theodore Roosevelt in Milwaukee as he sought another term in the White House during the 1912 Presidential election. Despite being shot in the chest, Roosevelt decided to go ahead and deliver his campaign speech before being taken to the hospital where doctors discovered that the bullet lodged inside of TR had first passed through a case for his eyeglasses and the thick pages of his speech in his jacket's pocket, lessening the damage from the gunshot. •The attempted assassination of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami in February 1933, just seventeen days in before FDR's Inauguration, which wounded four people and killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. •The ill-fated 1950 attempt by Puerto Rican nationalists to storm Blair House (the temporary Presidential residence during the renovation of the White House) and kill President Harry S. Truman as he was napping. Truman was not hurt, but a White House Police Officer and one of the two assassins were killed during the wild shootout. •President Gerald Ford's trouble with two California women who separately tried to kill him in Sacramento and then San Francisco just two weeks apart in September 1975. •The shocking shooting of President Ronald Reagan in broad daylight from just a few yards away as he exited the Washington Hilton following a speech in March 1981, which left four people wounded and very nearly killed the 70-year-old Reagan just two months into his Presidency.

But what is amazing is that, in this age of instant information and the constant regurgitation of media coverage via the 24-hour news cycle, very few Americans know that there is a man sitting in prison in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia for attempting to assassinate President George W. Bush. What even less Americans realize is how close Vladimir Arutyunian actually came to accomplishing his task.

On May 10, 2005, President Bush spoke to a large crowd at an outdoor rally in Tbilisi, Georgia. In one of the photos at the top of this post, Bush is seen speaking from the stage in Tbilisi. The other photo is of Arutyunian holding a plaid handkerchief close to his chest. Wrapped in that handkerchief was a live hand grenade.

As President Bush spoke, nearby sat his wife, Laura, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, and the Dutch-born First Lady of Georgia, Sandra Roelofs. They had no idea that, during the speech, Arutyunian tossed his handkerchief-wrapped grenade towards the stage. The grenade landed just 61 feet away from President Bush, well within range of causing serious injury, if not death.

Of course, the grenade did not explode. At first, it was thought to be a dud, but upon closer inspection it was discovered that the only reason the grenade didn't explode was because Arutyunian's handkerchief -- used to conceal the explosive as he stood in the crowd -- was wrapped too tightly around the grenade, preventing the firing pin from deploying. A Georgian security official noticed the grenade, grabbed it quickly and disposed of it as Arutyunian disappeared into the massive crowd and President Bush continued speaking.

After Bush's speech was over and once it was recognized that the President had only narrowly escaped a legitimate attempted assassination, Georgian police worked closely with the United States Secret Service, the FBI, and the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the assassination attempt and find the would-be assassin who seemingly melted into Tbilisi after his brazen, albeit unsuccessful attempt on Bush's life. Using DNA evidence and tips from informants, the Georgian police ultimately tracked down Arutyunian two months later. When they went to arrest Arutyunian, a gunfight broke out and Arutyunian killed Zurab Kvlividze, a top counterterrorism official with Georgia's Interior Ministry. Arutyunian was wounded before finally being captured with the assistance of Georgian Special Forces.

The Georgians tried Arutyunian on the murder of the police officer, as well as the attempted assassinations of President Bush and President Saakshvili. Arutyunian was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. A federal grand jury in the United States also indicted Arutyunian on the federal charge of the attempted assassination of the President of the United States, which is a felony. The U.S., however, has not attempted nor has any potential plans to extradite the failed assassin from Georgia, and Arutyunian will almost certainly spend the rest of his life in a Georgian prison.

[mariacallous]

A constitutional crisis is brewing in Tbilisi, Georgia. It will quickly reach a boiling point when the newly elected, far-right pro-Russian President Mikheil Kavelashvili is inaugurated on Dec. 29. The current president, staunchly pro-European Salome Zourabichvili, refuses to step down, because she alleges that the Oct. 26 parliamentary elections were fraudulent, thus deeming Georgian Dream party’s electoral victory as illegitimate. Zourabichvili has called for new elections—a demand echoed by the European Parliament and many international observers—while trying, unsuccessfully, to challenge the Georgian Dream party in the nation’s Constitutional Court.

This looming crisis comes after mass protests in Tbilisi on Nov. 30 against the government’s decision to delay EU accession until 2028 were violently suppressed by security forces, leaving demonstrators and journalists injured. The unrest was part of a yearlong wave of protests against the government’s Kremlin-inspired “foreign agents” law, which has been criticized for targeting civic groups and undermining democratic opposition ahead of the parliamentary elections in October.

Local factors drive democratic declines, and post-election protests are common in post-Soviet regions as well as globally, but Georgia’s crisis highlights deeper failures in Euro-Atlantic policies on democratization in Eurasia.

With a rich pre-Soviet civic history, Georgia was most recently the U.S.-supported democratic trailblazer in the South Caucasus—and yet it now faces significant setbacks. What went wrong?

In the 1990s, Washington embraced Georgia as the “cause in the Caucasus.” Years of financial and political support culminated in what is now a suspended strategic partnership. Georgian elites—particularly one of the leaders of the Rose Revolution, Mikheil Saakashvili—sought Western support, claiming Georgia as a European nation. In the public imagination, Georgia’s democratic aspirations became deeply intertwined with its geopolitical orientation toward the West: striving for democracy, joining the EU.

Georgia is now deeply polarized by geopolitical divisions between Russia and the West. Should Georgia’s democratic slide continue, the rest of the South Caucasus will feel the negative impact, especially with creeping dictatorship in neighboring Azerbaijan and a challenge to democratic consolidation in neighboring Armenia. The strategic value of the Georgian-Armenian democratic dyad will be no more.

This situation demonstrates how Washington’s habit of projecting global power through regionally untethered alliances, such as Georgia in the South Caucasus, is becoming a liability. Reliant on its hub-and-spoke network of bilateral alliances, of which Georgia was one, Washington has lacked a coherent approach to the Eurasian continent since the Soviet collapse. The result is that the U.S. alliance system’s ability to withstand authoritarian coordination by China and Russia is weakening. Pivoting on specific states, without a broader continental approach and blueprints for regional integration, will only strengthen the local elites and undercut U.S. power in this challenging continent.

A fresh new approach to the world’s largest landmass is needed. Specifically, a continental strategy should involve fostering economic integration and connectivity across subregions such as the South Caucasus and Central Asia—which means promoting the creation of trade and transit routes and establishing clear rules for their operation. Such a continental vision can help Washington generate economic dividends in the various subregions. This approach would strengthen smaller states collectively, enhance U.S. influence in Eurasia, and improve Washington’s bargaining power against Sino-Russian coordination.

Unlike Washington, both China and Russia have developed continental designs for Eurasia. For the Kremlin, Eurasianism—the idea that Russia is not exclusively part of Europe or Asia, but rather the center of gravity of a Eurasian civilization—has become a guiding political doctrine. Initially motivated to resurrect aspects of the multinational Soviet Union across its successor states, Eurasianism has now evolved for Moscow into a civilizational, anti-Western, anti-liberal precept. It has been bombastic, territorial, aggressive, and exclusive, culminating in the establishment of Russia-centric regional organizations such as the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, as well as in its invasion in Ukraine.

And now, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is causing trade disruptions and shifting trade routes in Eurasia and beyond. The Kremlin’s loss of geopolitical and strategic leverage over Eurasian connectivity—infrastructural and political—is a development of historical proportions.

China’s continentalism, on the other hand, advances unchallenged. In contrast to Russia, China is advancing its influence over this landmass largely through its infrastructural power: The Belt and Road Initiative and its network of pipelines and power lines. It is through this infrastructural power that China is reshaping existing regional orders in Russia’s peripheries, with Central Asia as a key front line. And Beijing’s approach is ambiguous, nontransparent, and nonterritorial, allowing China to advance through Russia’s periphery without confrontation.

Early visions and designs of a continental approach to Eurasia started to emerge during the Biden administration. Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden has tried to close the gap with China’s massive infrastructural advancement by investing in infrastructure, revitalizing partnerships, and building “connective tissue” between allies on the continent, as explained in essays by the U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

In 2023, Sullivan emphasized boosting connectivity between Europe and the Indo-Pacific  to strengthen U.S. alliances and burden-sharing. In response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the United States has revamped its hub-and-spoke approach to Eurasia in recent years with initiatives such as AUKUS; the Quad; and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, which would link Asia, the Persian Gulf, and Europe.

Yet this approach remains dangerously outdated, having changed little since the end of the Second World War. Its strategic thinking still compartmentalizes Eurasia into disjointed subregions, within each relying on a so-called pivot state to exercise U.S. power and protect Washington’s interests. Some examples include Japan, Turkey, India, and South Korea.

Influence projected in this way is what political scientist Peter Katzenstein and others have called the “American imperium”: various territorial and nonterritorial mechanisms used to penetrate a region, often through a single state designated as a regional intermediary, for purposes of sustained influence and global hegemony.

Approaching this vast continent via bilateral alliance politics rather than a continental vision has weakened the United States in identifiable ways.

First, it diluted Washington’s bargaining power relative to smaller states, such as Georgia, and middle powers, including Turkey. In Georgia, for example, Washington ended up enhancing the bargaining power of the increasingly authoritarian government, which was able to centralize power and capture the state institutions. These trends only further polarized society. Despite losing influence in the region since its invasion in Ukraine, Moscow can now snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the South Caucasus.

In the aftermath of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, as more Eurasian subregions were taking shape—such as Central Asia, the Baltic states, the South Caucasus, and the Balkans—this strategy has become a liability. These subregions are frontier spaces between larger geopolitical powers, and the political elites in their pivot states quickly learned to play off Washington, Moscow, and Beijing against one another.

Second, this approach created regional conditions that are unfavorable to democratic breakthroughs and conducive to authoritarian durability. The fractured geopolitics of Eurasia pose an immediate threat to the rules-based order nurtured under U.S. hegemony���perhaps even more than the rise of China.

In continuing to focus on pivot states across Eurasia, the United States has, since the end of the Cold War, inadvertently created or exacerbated geopolitical cleavages there. Such cleavages have weakened regional markets, making it hard for nascent democracies to produce economic dividends. State fragility in these regions crystallized into a condition, keeping regions stuck in armed conflicts of various severity. In the Caucasus, with its singular alliance with Georgia, Washington has contributed to economic fracture.

Georgia emerged as the short-term beneficiary of poorly connected regional markets. This then enhanced the bargaining power of the Georgia Dream, relative to Washington. Indeed, Tbilisi continues to play off China, Russia, and the West against one another.

Despite—or perhaps because of—the severe political crisis in Georgia, the South Caucasus is where a diplomatic push for broader continental approach by the incoming Trump administration could deliver quick dividends for Washington’s influence in Eurasia.

Unlike its policies in Indo-Pacific, where the Biden administration succeeded in deepening principles of open regionalism and rules-based free trade, Washington is still playing defense in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan, a tiny, declining, and autocratic petrostate has succeeded in keeping the West out and Russia in. President Ilham Aliyev’s repeated threats to carve an extraterritorial Zangezur corridor in Armenia’s south aim to create a sanctions-proof, overland Middle Corridor.

If successful, this plan would turn Armenia’s south into a gray-zone entrepôt, overseen militarily by Russia and Azerbaijan. Opaque to the United States, this would connect Russia and Iran, giving China a new route to its Anaklia deep-water port facility, which is under construction on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. In addition to sabotaging Washington’s diplomacy directed at opening trade and transit routes in the region, Baku also derides the EU civilian monitors on Armenia’s borders. Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin also champion regional formats of engagement that are specifically designed to exclude the Euro-Atlantic powers.

Indeed, Russia is likely to compensate its losses in the Middle East by pushing harder in the South Caucasus, where it has been losing ground since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

James C. O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, emphasized in a June interview that Washington’s supports a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, highlighting its potential to foster regional prosperity by creating a trade route from Central Asia to the Mediterranean.

In the short term, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump can continue Biden’s policies of open regionalism and continental connectivity. This entails deepening the currently limited U.S. support to Armenia’s Crossroads for Peace initiative, an effort to enhance broad-based regional connectivity. This promises to generate economic benefits to the South Caucasus while reducing Russia’s influence over the region.

This initiative can also turn the United States into a key player in Eurasian connectivity, giving Washington transparent and diversified access to Central and South Asia. To this end, leaning on Turkey to open its border with Armenia—to date an ongoing but unsuccessful diplomatic engagement between Ankara and Yerevan—could have far-reaching regional and continental effects, diminishing Russia’s control over trade and transit routes.

In the long term, the U.S. president-elect can rewrite the forms of democratic assistance to countries in such regions. Allocating funding designed specifically for building cross-border collaboration or cultivating professional networks across the region can address the problem of regional fracture in Eurasia. And just as importantly, offering political and financial support for trilateral governance between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, under the U.S. umbrella, will allow Washington to have predictable connectivity to Central Asia and South Asia—perennial goals for successive administrations since the end of the Cold War. Washington has done it in the postwar Balkans and can do so again in postwar Caucasus.

But none of these goals will be possible if the threat of war and aggression continues to shape regional politics in the Caucasus. Euro-Atlantic powers are uniquely positioned to strengthen the norms against conquest and aggression—the very norms that Russia-backed Azerbaijan has been trying to undermine in the region. With its rapidly declining oil revenues, Azerbaijan is set to lose its regional leverage, making Baku more amenable to Trump’s much-touted strategy of “peace through strength.”

Washington’s continental approach to Eurasia can help to reverse the growing authoritarian tide in the South Caucasus. Georgia’s hope for a European future can be restarted by pushing back against authoritarian actors in the region, of which the Georgian Dream is just one of many.

[allthegeopolitics]

Georgia’s ruling party has vowed to outlaw virtually all of its political opponents if it wins parliamentary elections later this year. The ban would likely leave Georgia’s already frozen bid to join the EU in tatters, after recent clashes between Tbilisi and Brussels on human rights and the rule of law. On Friday, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said the government would seek to ban more than half a dozen parties following October’s critical nationwide vote. That comes days after the ruling Georgian Dream party threatened to dissolve the largest opposition grouping in parliament, the United National Movement (UNM) which was founded by former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Continue Reading.

[blackpilledkremlintsarina5294]

December 4, 2008

As Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin continued to communicate with the nation during live broadcasts. The conversation with Vladimir Putin lasted about three hours. There were many questions about the economy, housing, and the Government’s social policy. “The situation was much more difficult in the early 2000,” Putin told the reporters. “There was a threat to our country’s territorial integrity and a risk of total social and economic collapse. But we came through it. We will manage this time as well.”

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin implied that he had privately voiced a desire to hang Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili "by the balls" during the war in Georgia last August. Asked during a live televised appearance whether he had threatened to hang Saakashvili "by one special place." Putin paused, looked directly into the camera, and coyly replied: "Why just one?"

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.9 (after 1950)

1952 – Hugo Ballivián's government is overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, starting a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalization of tin mines 1952 – Japan Air Lines Flight 301 crashes into Mount Mihara, Izu Ōshima, Japan, killing 37. 1957 – The Suez Canal in Egypt is cleared and opens to shipping following the Suez Crisis. 1959 – Project Mercury: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven". 1960 – Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a white farmer, David Pratt in Johannesburg. 1967 – The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) makes its maiden flight. 1969 – The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford with Brian Trubshaw as the test pilot. 1980 – The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein kills philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Bint al-Huda after three days of torture. 1981 – The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS George Washington accidentally collides with the Nissho Maru, a Japanese cargo ship, sinking it and killing two Japanese sailors. 1989 – Tbilisi massacre: An anti-Soviet peaceful demonstration and hunger strike in Tbilisi, demanding restoration of Georgian independence, is dispersed by the Soviet Army, resulting in 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries. 1990 – An IRA bombing in County Down, Northern Ireland, kills three members of the UDR. 1990 – The Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement is signed for 180,000 square kilometres (69,000 sq mi) in the Mackenzie Valley of the western Arctic. 1990 – An Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 over Gadsden, Alabama, killing both of the Cessna's occupants. 1991 – Georgia declares independence from the Soviet Union. 1992 – A U.S. Federal Court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He is sentenced to 30 years in prison. 1994 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-59. 2003 – Iraq War: Baghdad falls to American forces. 2009 – In Tbilisi, Georgia, up to 60,000 people protest against the government of Mikheil Saakashvili. 2013 – A 6.1–magnitude earthquake strikes Iran killing 32 people and injuring over 850 people. 2013 – At least 13 people are killed and another three injured after a man goes on a spree shooting in the Serbian village of Velika Ivanča. 2014 – A student stabs 20 people at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. 2017 – The Palm Sunday church bombings at Coptic churches in Tanta and Alexandria, Egypt, take place. 2017 – After refusing to give up his seat on an overbooked United Express flight, Dr. David Dao Duy Anh is forcibly dragged off the flight by aviation security officers, leading to major criticism of United Airlines. 2021 – Burmese military and security forces commit the Bago massacre, during which at least 82 civilians are killed.

[maximumphilosopheranchor]

... to understand Putin, all we had to do was to listen. My first article of warning was published in the Wall Street Journal in January 4th, 2001. And all I did, I just was listening to Putin's own words. And when Putin said that there were no such a thing as a former KGB agent, I knew that Russia's fragile democracy was in danger. And when Putin said, actually repeatedly said that collapse with the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of 20th century, I knew Russians knew the independent neighbors were at risk. And eventually when Putin talked at the Munich Security Conference, 15 years ago in 2007, about return to spheres of influence I knew he was ready to launch his attack because that was the language of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, language used by Hitler and Stalin to divide Europe. And of course, next year he attacked Republic of Georgia. And I remember that after this attack, which for me was just the most convincing proof of his intentions, the West didn't respond. They tried to spread the blame between the Republic of Georgia and then President Mikheil Saakashvili and Putin's Russia though, technically Putin was not the president at the time. He was puppet master behind the stage, having his shadow man Medvedev sitting in Kremlin. And America, instead of doing something, offered a reset policy. And I wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal, and I predicted attack on Ukraine. And later people asked me, "How did you know?" I said, "I looked at the map." And then of course Crimea. I mean, what else did you need to understand that Putin would not respect any international treatise signed by Russia. And for him, Crimea was a very important step in this direction because America and Great Britain had some kind of legal responsibilities to defend Ukraine because in 1994, there was a so-called Budapest Memorandum, when after heavy pressure from Clinton administration, Ukrainians gave up their nuclear arsenal, which few people remember was a third largest in the world. Ukraine have more nuclear warheads than China, France, and Great Britain combined. And then, what we heard is, "Oh, memorandum is not a binding document." And Putin heard what he wanted, so where he could continue his expansion, recovering Soviet Russian influence without any consequences, because the sanctions that were announced, though they were trumpeted as something very powerful, they had almost no impact on Russian economy.(..) ...the free world had to respond at early stage at any sign of recurring Russian nationalism. That's why I mentioned Boris Yeltsin. And then of course, Putin demonstrated it and spoke about it quite frankly. And I think every time when he spoke about it, that's why I mentioned the conference in Munich in 2007, he had no response. The moment when Putin talked about spheres of influence, Americans had to respond even harshly to tell him that just remember it's 21st century, this is not 19th century. And it's not surprising that Putin eventually got a message, what he wanted to hear, same way as Hitler in Sudetes. "Oh, I could do that." And then he thought that he could go even beyond Europe.(..) In 1994, United States pressed Ukraine to give up nuclear weapons. I think that it's maybe not today, but definitely before the war, this administration have been pressing the Ukrainians to accept so called Minsk deal that would offer Putin political control of Ukraine. Ukraine was a destruction for this administration and still a destruction now. And when you said Putin expected to win the work quickly, yes. So CIA and so Pentagon. So yes, I'm shocked now that the Director Burns and General Millie, those who blundered here, because they talked about Ukraine capital would fall in 96 hours. That Ukraine would not last for more than three or four days.(..) ... God forbid, Putin wins in Ukraine, he will not stop there. And are you sure that this piece of paper called Article 5 will stop him? I'm shocked to that oh, we have no obligations to defend Ukraine because it's not member of NATO, but we will fight for every inch of NATO territory. How come? Are you going to fight in Poland against Martians or against the same Russians? If you're afraid of Putin's nukes, why these nations should believe America that America will come to their rescue facing Putin army, blood-thirsty army that will be fresh of success in Ukraine. Right now, we have a unique opportunity to destroy Putin's war machine using Ukrainian manpower and determination and their spirit and all we need is to offer them real help, give them weapons. And also, in the strategy and strategy includes not only tanks, but also banks. (..) The war would not take place if Ukraine are member of NATO. And also ... You're talking about obligations. I don't know what's moral obligations, or you're talking about piece of paper. Again, Budapest memoranda was now in the same piece of paper. I don't want for us to check if Article 5 is also piece of paper the moment Putin crosses a native borders in Lithuania or Poland, actually most likely Lithuania, small country that doesn't have the same resource as Ukraine to fight back. (..) Russian history has many cases where the groups in power, they unsatisfied or scared by the policies of the leader, they conspired against him. So now with Putin, it's different because it's a dictatorship, a fascist dictatorship and he has all the power. I think he has even more power than Stalin because Stalin had politburo and people like Beria. Putin is surrounded by his cronies and henchmen with no aspirations to take over. But even the worst cowards can act out of their fear if they understand that the ship is going to sink and the precondition for any change in Russia, whether it's the social-economic revolt on the streets with millions of people getting to the streets and protesting, or with Putin's entourage deciding it's time to act and to find scapegoat, which is always a dictator. It's a military defeat in Ukraine. Until Russian troops are defeated in Ukraine, decisively, that you cannot hide this anymore, nothing will happen. And that's why I think that state of free-world must supply  Ukraine with everything they need to win the war, unless it happens, there will be no revolt on the streets or what you call palace coup.

Garry Kasparov

ALL OF THIS. Kasparov put it brilliantly.

"Good" job, West, for buying in Russia's manipulations for decades. By the way, the conversation above happened in April 2022 and the powerful Western countries still withhold the aviation that Ukraine so urgently needs to both protect its sky (when, you know, Russians deliberately are hitting Ukrainian civilians with rockets daily) and attack. As a Latvian I can say that I have no belief whatsoever that if - God forbid - Russia attacks my country NATO will respond timely and effectively. All hope on Ukraine.

[beardedmrbean]

Thousands of protesters rallied outside the Georgian parliament on Sunday amid mounting opposition to the country's government.

Critics accuse the ruling Georgian Dream party of being under the sway of Russia and of backsliding on democracy.

The government has been accused of jailing political opponents and silencing independent media.

The rally was organised by the main opposition party in support of jailed former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Mr Saakashvili, who served two terms as president between 2004 and 2013, is currently serving a six-year jail term for abuse of power, although international rights groups have condemned his conviction as politically motivated.

Last month, mass protests forced the government to abandon a bill that would have required any non-governmental organisation receiving money from abroad to register as an "agent of foreign influence".

Opponents said the bill was modelled on one introduced in Russia in 2012 to suppress dissent and called it a step towards authoritarianism. The protests saw police use water cannon and pepper spray on attendees.

On Sunday, demonstrators outside the parliament building in capital Tbilisi waved Georgian, Ukrainian and European Union flags and held a huge banner that read: "For a European future".

Public opinion in Georgia is overwhelmingly pro-EU, and the government says it remains committed to the country's bid to join the bloc, but opponents say its actions are harming Georgia's chances of gaining membership.

Georgia applied for EU membership along with Ukraine and Moldova days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

In June, the EU formally named Ukraine and Moldova as candidate member states, but said Georgia must implement a number of political and judicial reforms before being given the status.

Addressing the rally, Levan Khabeishvili, chair of the United National Movement party, which was founded by Mr Saakashvili, called for the "liberation of political prisoners" and the introduction of the reforms Brussels has asked for.

Georgia drops 'foreign agents' law after protests

Police in Georgia fire water cannon and pepper spray at protesters

Protests highlight struggle for Georgia's future

Giorgi Margvelashvili, who succeeded Mr Saakashvili as president, told the crowd that the Georgian government was "being controlled from Moscow and our obligation is to save our homeland from Russian stooges".

"We are freedom-loving people, part of the European family, we reject Russian slavery," he said.

One of the demonstrators, 27-year-old painter Luka Kavsadze, told the AFP news agency: "Our struggle will be peaceful but uncompromised and will lead us to where we belong - the European Union."

Recent months have seen Mr Saakashvili stage a number of hunger strikes, and his supporters have claimed he is being denied proper healthcare.

Mr Saakashvili has also alleged he has been poisoned in prison, although Georgian authorities have accused him of feigning ill health to secure early release. In an article for the Politico website earlier this week Mr Saakashvili said he was dying from "from a bewildering array of over 20 serious illnesses".

[cyberbenb]

Slovakia bans Georgian Legion commander, linking him to alleged coup plot

Slovakia has banned Georgian Legion commander Mamuka Mamulashvili from entering the country after the government linked his unit to an alleged coup plot, Denník N reported on Jan. 31.

The volunteers-based Georgian Legion, which has been fighting in Ukraine since 2014, was founded by Mamulashvili to combat Russian forces.

Slovak Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj-Eštok said a total of 10 people were on the list of individuals barred from entering Slovakia.

During a press conference, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico did not explain how Mamulashvili could have organized protests in Slovakia or been behind the alleged coup plot.

The demonstrations, held under the slogan “Slovakia is Europe,” swept across 30 cities on Jan. 24, with around 100,000 people nationwide chanting slogans like “Enough of Fico” and “We are Europe” in opposition to his policies and pro-Russian stance.

The protests were also fueled by Fico’s visit to Moscow in late December, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin — one of the few European Union leaders to do so since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Fico cited a photo of Mamulashvili with Lucy Štasselová from the Peace for Ukraine initiative and Denník N commentator Martin Šimečka, both of whom supported the Georgian Legion, as evidence for his claim.

The Georgian Legion dismissed the Slovak government’s accusations as “absurd and groundless."

“These statements are nothing more than a deliberate attempt to discredit our unit, which has been fighting alongside Ukraine against Russian aggression since 2014,” Mamulashvili said.

A similar accusation previously emerged in Georgia, where the State Security Service (SSG) alleged that the Georgian Legion, a former bodyguard of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, and Giorgi Lortkipanidze—allegedly a deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence—were involved in a plot against the ruling pro-Russian Georgian Dream party.

“Now, the Slovak authorities have decided to follow the same Russian game, recycling the same lies to serve their own political agenda,” Mamulashvili added.

The news came a day after reports that the police in Slovakia detained a Ukrainian citizen on Jan. 30 suspected of preparing a coup in the country.

Relations between Kyiv and Bratislava have become increasingly tense this month. Fico, who has long opposed military aid to Ukraine, has escalated threats against Kyiv following the termination of Russian gas transit via Ukrainian territory on Jan. 1.

Zelensky backs Slovak protests as Fico criticizes opposition, organizers

“Bratislava is not Moscow, Slovakia is Europe,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X on Jan. 25, voicing support for protests against Slovakia’s government.

The Kyiv IndependentOlena Goncharova