Only in Georgia can you see in one day and in the same place a bust-up between police and protesters that leads to the deaths of two people, followed by a military parade, and, finally, the resumption of life as normal.
Presumably, Nino Burjanadze knew she was spoiling for a fight when she stayed put on Tbilisi's Rustaveli Avenue and threatened to disrupt the May 26 Independence Day parade, an event that had had a full dress rehearsal -- fighter jets and army helicopters included -- just a week before.
You don’t get between the Georgian government and its love for pageantry. That said, there are limits. A kilometer-long performance of the military folk dance khorumi by Sukhishvili dancers wearing Georgian army uniforms was canceled.
Still, the show -- in one form or another -- is going on.
The government’s PR counterattack to claims of excessive force by police has been the usual talk about a Kremlin-orchestrated attempt to overthrow Georgia’s pro-Western government, with Burjanadze as the attack matrioshka.
To back up this point, police yesterday released a recording of alleged conversations between Burjanadze and her son, Anzor; today, government-friendly TV stations have looped footage of Burjanadze hanging out with Russia’s Vladimir Putin after the 2008 Russia-Georgia war. It's anyone's guess what tomorrow will bring.
Burjanadze, though, perhaps drawing on her years as a close Saakashvili ally, has parried the attack. Why, she queried, if she is Moscow's "fifth column," did the government conceal its knowledge of her supposed intentions until May 26? "This is, at a minimum, . . . irresponsibility and, at a maximum, betrayal of the country," Interpressnews reported Burjanadze as saying.
The big message, though, is clear: Georgia is caught in a political rut. There should be another way of waging political battles -- one free of street slugfests, casualties and grand declarations -- but, so far, looks like nobody has any bright ideas.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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