Saakashvili Addresses Nation at End of Energy Crisis

In a live televised address to the nation, President Saakashvili hailed the government’s efforts late on January 30 and said that Georgia has successfully passed a test and has overcome the recent energy crisis in the county.

Mikheil Saakashvili said that blasts at two gas pipelines in Russia’s North Ossetian Republic on January 22, which sparked an energy crisis, “aimed at demoralizing” the Georgian nation.

“But we have seen the absolute opposite of this. We have seen how organized and bravely our nation coped with the crisis… We have seen that Georgia has a well-organized, united and well-coordinated governmental team,” Saakashvili said.

“Our energy technicians have avoided those [problems] which these people [behind the pipeline blasts] aimed at: a total collapse of the [energy] system in the country. We have maintained the vital system,” he added.

He also hailed the activities of the local self-governance bodies and especially stressed measures undertaken by the activists of the ruling National Movement party, who, as Saakashvili put it, “spared no efforts to provide assistance” to socially vulnerable people during the crisis.
 
“This means that Georgia has an active, effective government, which knows how to deal [with problems],” he stated.

He also said that the way Georgia dealt with this crisis demonstrated how much the country’s “positions have strengthened in recent years.”

“In the mid-90s there were even worse energy crisises in Georgia, but this was attracting little international attention. But in recent days, I can say without any exaggeration that Georgia was a major issue discussed around the world. Georgia was top news in the world’s media sources. And there were lots of considerations about what a huge threat this [situation involving a energy crisis] poses not only to Georgia, but to Europe as well,” Saakashvili said.

“And this is a breakthrough for us. This means that we are a normal country, which has friends,” he added.

He said that the Georgian authorities’ attempts to find alternative sources of energy supply helped the country overcome the crisis.

“We have been working for a long time already to secure the energy independence of Georgia. We have spent the last year rehabilitating energy facilities and power lines… In the midst of the crisis we sent our Energy Minister [Nika Gilauri] to neighboring countries [Azerbaijan and Iran] to negotiate ways out of the crisis. And thanks to all these measures it was possible to avoid a total blackout, because we have started to work in a parallel regime with Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Saakashvili said.

“Our brotherly Azerbaijan has restricted itself in its electricity supply and gave electricity and gas to us and I think this was a step which we should highly respect,” he stated.

He also said that Georgia is actively working towards significantly reduceing Russia’s gas share in Georgia’s energy supplies by next winter.

“When the share of Russian gas decreases, there will be less temptation to manipulate the [gas] prices or to carry out sabotage,” Saakashvili said.

He also hailed the launch of an Iranian gas flow to Georgia on January 30, referring to it as “historic.”

“Due to the restoration of a gas pipeline [with Azerbaijan] Georgia, for the first time since its independence is not being supplied with Russian gas alone. For the first time we now have an alternative source of gas. And of course we will further intensify work in this direction,” Saakashvili said.

“We will also intensify our efforts so that Europe could use our communications for energy resources available in the region,” he added.

The Georgian President also said that important energy investment projects are now being prepared by the authorities.

“We are now preparing for a large-scale international tender in an attempt to develop our hydro power resources so that in a maximum of three years – in the last year of my first presidential term – Georgia will be able to totally secure its electricity need with its own resources,” the Georgian leader stated.

“Georgia has moved from the epoch of destruction into the epoch of reconstruction… There can be only one response to any kind of blackmail, to any kind of sabotage and to any kind of intimidation: we should grow stronger, there is no time to complain – it is time to work and to be well-organized,” Saakashvili said.