Georgia: With Rupert Murdoch as an Ally, Billionaire Pledges Big Bucks for Opposition

Days before a November 2 anti-government rally, controversial Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili is openly challenging President Mikheil Saakashvili, vowing to sponsor the Georgian opposition's drive for early parliamentary elections.

In a written statement released on October 27, Patarkatsishvili said he would give an unspecified amount of financial support to a group of 10 political parties that are rallying against President Saakashvili. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The coalition is calling for holding parliamentary polls as early as April 2008 in a bid to deny the governing National Movement Party a legislative majority.

The decision was followed late on October 31 with an announcement that Patarkatsishvili would transfer for one year his shares in Imedi Media Holding, the parent company for Imedi television, to co-owner News Corporation, which is controlled by Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The television station, largely sympathetic to the opposition, has been at the center of the scandal over former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili's allegations against Saakashvili and his government. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Top government officials did not immediately react to the Imedi decision. But National Movement leaders are construing Patarkatsishvili's move as an attempt to overthrow the government, and they vow to act resolutely to blunt the tycoon's political ploy. "He [Patarkatsishvili] seeks to destabilize the country," parliamentary majority leader Maia Nadiradze told reporters on October 29.

Patarkatsishvili, who accuses Saakashvili of political terror and human rights violations, insisted that his actions are motivated by a desire to uphold, not destroy constitutional order. "I hope everyone – first and foremost the authorities – fully understands the responsibility they have to prevent provocations that may trigger developments beyond the constitutional framework," Patarkatsishvili's statement reads. He also expressed his support for the 12 principles included in a joint statement of the allied opposition parties. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The decision does not come as a surprise. Patarkatsishvili has been squarely in the government's firing line since allegations aired on Imedi by ex-Defense Minister Okruashvili that Saakashvili had ordered the businessman's murder. Okruashvili, who was later imprisoned on various criminal charges, has since retracted his statement, but presidential supporters still portray him as acting at Patarkatsishvili's behest. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Ironically, notes independent political analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze, before the 2003 Rose Revolution, Patarkatsishvili sponsored the tandem of Parliamentary Speaker Nino Burjanadze and Zurab Zhvania, Saakashvili's comrades-in-arms. Relations soured, he contends, when Patarkatsishvili came under pressure to back the Saakashvili government's reforms.

For now, details about Patarkatsishvili's support for the opposition remain under wraps. Patarkatsishvili's announcement came shortly after President Saakashvili's own decision to distribute one-time social welfare payments to low-income Georgians, a move, his critics contend, which was meant to undermine support for the growing opposition movement. On Saakashvili's orders, individuals living below the poverty line will receive 100 lari (about $61.70) per capita to cover winter heating expenses and a 50-kilogram sack of wheat flour.

Analyst Alexander Rondeli, however, thinks Saakashvili's gift will do little to take the heat off the government. Painful market economy reforms and dire living conditions drive the current political turmoil, he argues. "Local anesthesia does little when a surgery of such scale is in progress," Rondeli said.

Rondeli posits that "most people" are taking part in the protests because they hope a change in government will mean a change in their living conditions. Annual per capita income in Georgia stands at under $4,000.

"Saakashvili's government is better advised to tone down their lofty attitude toward political opponents and do a better job in communicating the essence of the reforms to the population, which simply expects the government to be a provider in keeping with the Soviet tradition, and doesn't care about the objective reasons for their plight," he added.

In a bow to the opposition, Saakashvili has lowered the electoral threshold for entry into parliament from the current 7 percent to 5 percent of the vote. He also curtailed executive authority to disband parliament, and extended parliamentarians' term in office from four to five years. On October 16, the president called for dialogue with the opposition, noting that "there are still tickets available on our train. We wouldn't want anybody to be left out."
Saakashvili and his entourage have categorically declined to consider the key demand of the opposition – early parliamentary polls.

Opposition leaders see no reason to credit the president for his proposals – measures that they insist are long overdue. "As it stands now, the united opposition is going to prevail in the [parliamentary] elections," Conservative Party MP Kakha Kukava was quoted by the newspaper Akhali Taoba (New Generation) as saying.

Meanwhile, a television war between the two sides is running strong. Anti-Saakashvili politicians have refused to appear on Rustavi 2, the country's largest broadcast company, claiming that the broadcaster slants its coverage to present the government in a positive light. Presidential supporters have, in turn, refused to appear on Imedi, claiming similar bias against the government.

On October 28, Imedi reporters filmed pro-government activists beating several opposition leaders in the western Georgian town of Zugdidi. The opposition members had traveled to Zugdidi to recruit supporters for the November 2 demonstration in Tbilisi. Senior members of the National Movement Party have condemned the fray, but put the blame on "provocative actions" by the opposition.