Senior MP Sees Less Threat from April Rallies

A senior lawmaker from the ruling party, Givi Targamadze, said protest rallies planned from April 9 did not pose similar destabilization threat as the events of November, 2007, when anti-governmental demonstrations were broken up followed by raid on Imedi TV.

“I know that the Georgian state will protect the law and order; so I do not suppose that the demonstrations may have some other type of development,” MP Givi Targamadze, the chairman of the parliamentary committee for defense and security, told the public TV’s weekly program, Accents, late on April 1.

Asked about the difference between the situation in November, 2007 – when the authorities had to call early presidential elections after breaking up of protest rallies, and the situation now, MP Targamadze responded: “November 7 has already happened and we made conclusions out of that, including the one how we should react on demonstration like that.”

“On the other hand in November [2007] we were facing much stronger resistance, which included unlimited source of money [reference to late tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili] inside the country, backed with the television station [reference to Imedi TV] – that was creating source of extreme destabilization,” he said.

He also said that now “no such unlimited source of money” existed and “inflow of black money” into the country from abroad “is now more or less under control.”

“Some money is of course coming into the country, but that does not pose any threat similar to the one that was in November, 2007,” he said.

Asked how the authorities plan to respond to the planned rallies, MP Targamadze said: “We will act very firmly, but without any excesses – there have been excesses during the November on the part of the authorities, although in a whole the decision was justified. Right now I do not see any threat that would require use of similar measures [that were used in November, 2007].”

He also said that the not all the opposition parties were in favor of radical demands and added in reference to the parliamentary minority that authorities were cooperating with those parties disposed towards constrictive dialogue.

“What can this part of the opposition [pushing for the President Saakashvili’s resignation with street protest rallies] change in this country? I do not think it can change much. What they are pushing for is only their interests and not the one of the society. They have failed to offer anything meaningful to the society,” MP Givi Targamadze said.

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