The situation in Georgia continues to be bad news for Eduard Shevardnadze.<\/p>\n
Last Thursday<\/a>, the Central Election Commission of Georgia declared his victory in the disputed Nov. 2nd parliamentry vote.<\/p>\n This led to calls for civil disobedience<\/a>, a velvet revolution<\/a>, and demonstrations which forced Shevardnadze to flee from parliament mid-speech and retreat, once again, from the capital.<\/p>\n Opposition politician Nino Burdzhanadze has taken on his position<\/a> for the time being.<\/p>\n Widely popular among women, she has been twice elected to Georgia’s parliament since she ended lengthy studies and consulting work at the Environment Ministry and parliament’s Committee on Foreign Relations.<\/p>\n Like Saakashvili, Burdzhanadze once backed Georgia’s now embattled president, who took power in 1992 after a period of huge upheaval following the collapse of communism.<\/p>\n She has called on opposition activists not to turn their wrath over the modern Georgia’s dire straits into attacks on the 75-year-old Shevardnadze. At the same time she has been blunt in branding his administration corrupt.<\/p>\n “We should protect the physical security of the president, like any other citizen of this country,” she said after the opposition seized the country’s parliament on Saturday. <\/i><\/p>\n Shevardnadze has declared a state of emergency <\/a>and is on the phone to both Putin and Colin Powell. Powell reportedly will visit Georgia ‘soon’, no date given.<\/p>\n A high ranking U.S. official did visit the region on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n General Charles “Chuck” Wald, Deputy Commander of the US European Command, visited military installations and had talks with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.<\/p>\n The Azeri state news agency quoted the general as saying that Washington was offering unspecified military aid which “is important from the point of view of regional security, including in the Caspian. The Pentagon attaches great importance to this.”<\/i><\/p>\n Further links: [1<\/a>] [2<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The situation in Georgia continues to be bad news for Eduard Shevardnadze. Last Thursday, the Central Election Commission of Georgia declared his victory in the disputed Nov. 2nd parliamentry vote. This led to calls for civil disobedience, a velvet revolution, … Continue reading