Part of the alleged Chechen-Georgian arms cache discovered in Abkhazia
The Russian and Abkhazian security services say they have broken up a Chechen-Georgian plot to carry out terrorist attacks against the Sochi Olympics. According to a report from the Abkhazian official news agency ApsnyPress, the leader of the "Abkhazian Jamaat," an organization affiliated with the Caucasus Emirate, was arrested and a cache of weapons uncovered in the Gudauta region of Abkhazia. The list of weapons Apsny provides is pretty substantial, and includes a variety of anti-aircraft weaponry and grenade launchers.
The operation was masterminded by the leader of the Caucasus Emirate, Doku Umarov, with "direct involvement" of the Georgian security services and their allies in Turkey, according to a statement by the Russian Antiterrorism Committee:
Russian Federal Security Service was able to establish that the militants were planning to move these weapons during the 2012-2014 to Sochi and to use them to commit terrorist acts before and during the Olympic Games. Russia managed security services at an early stage to prevent the thugs attempting to launch their criminal plans....
They [the weapons] were brought into Abkhazia from Georgia. According to operational data, their transfer to Russia directly involved the Georgian special services and allied representatives of illegal armed groups in Turkey. The ringleader of an international terrorist organization "Caucasus Emirate" Umarov, maintaining close ties with the Georgian special services, coordinated all the activities of the organization of delivery of the commission of terrorist acts in close proximity to Sochi and marking these caches.
The Antiterrorism Committee website also has a number of photos of the alleged cache.
The Georgian government had laid out its expectations for the upcoming NATO summit, that it would receive "visible signs" of support from the alliance. The country's deputy secretary of the National Security Council, Batu Kutelia also said that Georgia should "be registered as part of the structure" of NATO, reports Georgian newspaper Rezonansi (via BBC Monitoring):
In his words, "the Chicago forum will not be an expansion summit but Georgia should 'be registered as part of the structure' as an aspirant country, which would confirm that Russia, a country that is not a member of the alliance, cannot veto NATO's decision to expand."
Batu Kutelia: "Aside from specific results, our main goal is to ensure that there are strong visible signs too. By 'visible signs' I mean the things that even someone without a deep knowledge of the question would understand from a distance.
"This is important for our people, the international community, the NATO member-states, and Russia which should see that the process of Georgia's accession to NATO has not slowed down.
"The most important thing that we expect from the NATO summit is that the group of aspirant countries, which includes Georgia along with three other countries, will be registered as a certain separate structure. This would be the kind of visible signal that the whole world, including the Russian Federation, would be able to see."
He's naming no names, but outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev claims that Russia can’t follow the suit of some small countries (such as Georgia; nudge nudge, wink wink), and sack its entire (and legendarily corrupt) police force.
“Excuse me, but we are not a midget, a tiny little state that is sometimes brought to me as an example [of successful police reform],” Medvedev elaborated in an April 26 TV interview that some Russian media have termed his political swan song.
In one "tiny little state" south of Russia's border -- namely, Georgia -- the line from the Kremlin provided some grist to the government's ever-ready PR mill. And to its Policeman Number One, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili.
If the Russians hope that some of Georgia’s luck in reforming the police fobs off on them, “we are happy to help,” Merabishvili told the Georgian parliament on April 26.
But while its police overhaul still gives a major bragging point to the Georgian government, it is all too easy to look progressive and reformed given what kind of police forces are in the neighborhood. Shakedowns of drivers, public job-seekers and prisoners may have become a thing of the past, but a whole slew of domestic criticisms stands against the Georgian police, and the sheriff-in-chief was in parliament to address them.
The new complaints focus on abuse of authority by law enforcement officials and the government’s frequent reluctance to take matters in hand. Critics claim that the Georgian police have become a political instrument inseparable from President Mikheil Saakashvili's administration.
Cpl. Giorgi Kharaishvili, Company A, 31st Georgian Light Infantry Battalion, on patrol in Afghanistan.
Georgia lost its 16th soldier in Afghanistan this week, when Sergeant Valerian Khujadze died in a roadside bomb attack in Helmand Province. The mounting death toll has made Georgia's participation in the Afghanistan war an increasingly controversial issue in Georgia, with opposition politicians speaking out against it and soldiers trying to avoid being sent to Afghanistan.
The country's most formidable opposition figure, Bidzina Ivanishvili, does not seem to have spoken publicly about the Afghanistan mission, though he has endorsed NATO membership. Several of his political allies in his Georgian Dream movement, though, have been publicly critical of Georgia's role in Afghanistan, in a series of statements which Vladimir Socor has enumerated:
Georgian Dream’s defense and security working group chief, Irakli Sesiashvili, stated in print: “[President] Saakashvili organized a joint special operation with the Americans in Afghanistan. The [combat deaths] could have occurred because of the badly planned special operation, or due to Saakashvili’s public-relations needs.” Sesiashvili also stated on prime-time national television: “This special operation was carried out for [President] Saakashvili’s public relations needs, to honor his visit to Afghanistan." Sesiashvili is also a member of Georgian Dream’s top political team. The head of Georgian Dream’s working group on regional policies, Mamuka Areshidze, stated: “Georgian troops are now being used as cannon fodder. Armenian troops face lesser risks than do our soldiers. Our soldiers get much less pay than NATO troops".
Georgia's NATO aspirations didn't exactly get a ringing endorsement from a State Department official at a Congressional hearing Thursday previewing next month's alliance summit in Chicago. U.S. officials have been hinting that Georgia would get some sort of reward at the summit for their recent constructive steps, like compromising with the Kremlin on Russia's bid for the World Trade Organization. As the U.S.'s next ambassador to Tbilbisi, Richard Norland, said at his confirmation hearing last month:
"Serious efforts” were being undertaken by the U.S. administration to use upcoming NATO summit in Chicago “to signal acknowledgment for Georgia’s progress in these areas and to work with the Allies to develop a consensus on the next steps forward.”
That reward won't be a NATO Membership Action Plan, the holy grail for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, and a virtual guarantee of future membership. But Washington still wants to signal to Georgia that they are valued -- they are, after all, the highest per-capita troop contributor to the coalition in Afghanistan -- while continuing to press them on political reforms. Norland said that the conduct of upcoming elections would be a "litmus test" for Georgia's NATO aspirations: parliamentary elections will be held this year and presidential elections next year, and Saakashvili appears determined to throw up as many obstacles as he can to his main opponent.
“So, this is a family situation,” the police officers commented, mockingly, after realizing that the fight they had come to break up was between a female couple. “So, which one of you is a guy and which one is a girl?” they asked, according to a report on Georgian lesbian, bisexual and transgender women.
The report, prepared by the Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG), describes the lives of LBT women as mostly closeted, lived in the shadow of the social mainstream, and surrounded by discrimination and various phobias.
The problems start inside families, which, in Georgia, often means an extended network of relatives actively monitoring younger members’ personal lives. One young lesbian respondent told WISG that, after finding out about her sexual orientation, her family placed her under tight control.
“I don’t have a job and I cannot live on my own,” she said. “The only way out that I see is to get married… I want to marry some gay man, so he can do his thing and I will do mine.”
Opinion polls have shown that 90 percent of Georgians persistently disapprove of homosexuality. But while issues related to gay men do make it into public discourse occasionally (though the national media mostly explore the topics for their scandal value), fear of ostracism, ridicule and/or violence means the LBT community maintains a much lower profile.
The Estonian Swan drone, above, and its Georgian younger brother, below.
Georgia made a splash last week when it rolled out what it said was its first domestically produced drone aircraft. “No one will share this [pointing to the Georgian-made drone] with others; it’s ours," said President Mikheil Saakashvili, at its unveiling. "We no longer depend on others.”
But now it's emerged that the drone may not be quite as homegrown as was originally presented. A variety of observers have noticed a strong similarity between the Georgian drone and the Swan, a UAV produced by Estonian company ELI. (See here for some more photos of both.) Even the digital camouflage pattern on the ground control system (visible at about 0:41 of the video in the original post) seems to be the same pattern used by Estonian armed forces.
Irakli Aladashvili, the editor of a Georgian military magazine, says the drone does in fact appear to be a close relative of the Estonian. Writing in the newspaper Kviris Palitra (below translation from BBC Monitoring), he says:
A detailed study showed that the Georgian unmanned aircraft presented last week looks very similar to the Estonian one, which makes us think that the unmanned aircraft christened as Georgian, might be made under the license of Estonian ELI. Suspicion is deepened by the camouflage cover of the computer of the land complex for the control of the pilotless aircraft. This kind of camouflage is typical only of the Estonian Army.
Saakashvili examines the fruits of Georgia's defense industry in a visit to the "Delta" defense plant in Tbilisi.
Georgia showed off its new domestically produced drone last week, a symbolic step in the development of the country's nascent defense industry. But President Mikheil Saakashvili has much bigger plans for the country's military-industrial complex, he has revealed, including an armed drone -- by next year -- and air defense systems.
Saakashvili laid out the plans in a speech at a state-run defense factory in Tbilisi, as reported by Civil.ge:
“I am sure that if we work well we will make air defense system too,” he continued. “Yesterday when we tested unmanned [aerial vehicle], some thought it was a toy… Go and buy if you can such a ‘toy’, which can fly for eight hours, equipped with cameras capable to capture images at night,”
“From next year we will have similar [drone], but capable to carry arms… and it will be much more efficient then old Russian [ground] attack aircraft,” Saakashvili said.
Saakashvili, who invoked Singapore as a model for Georgia's defense industry to follow, also said that the country was in "serious talks" about exporting its Didgori and Lazika armored vehicles.
At the same speech, though, Saakashvili said Georgia would also be relying on a lower-tech means of defense: a volunteer reserve force, which will grow from about 70,000 members this summer to 150,000 next year. Again, from Civil.ge:
President Mikheil Saakashvili has unveiled Georgia's first domestically produced drone aircraft. The drone is designed for reconnaissance and surveillance, with a photo and infrared camera, and Saakashvili said that it being homegrown means that "no one will share this with others," apparently referring to an embarrassing episode with previous UAVs that Georgia bought from Israel. After selling the drones to Georgia, Israel reportedly gave Russia data link codes that allowed the Russians to hack into the Georgian drones. The Georgian government hasn't publicly confirmed those reports, but Saakashvili surely had them in mind when speaking at the drone's launch, reports Civil.ge:
“When you make procurement from abroad a seller may not give you a full technology or may share technology [bought] by you to your adversary,” Saakashvili said at a presentation of the drone. “No one will share this [pointing to the Georgian-made drone] with others; it’s ours… We no longer depend on others.”
The drone can fly for eight hours, reach an altitude of 3,000 meters and reach a top speed of 160 km/hour, Georgia says. The Georgian Ministry of Defense has video of the demonstration here (and which you can see below). I asked a UAV expert, who asked not to be named, what he thought. He was impressed, but doubted that it was as homegrown as was being portrayed:
Georgians have long laid claim to being the first winemakers in the world, but could they also be pioneer beekeepers? After a thorough examination of some five-millennia-plus-old jars unearthed in Georgia, archeologists have declared that the artifacts contain the world’s oldest honey.
The honey stains found in the ceramic vessels, found 170 kilometers west of Tbilisi, are believed to be made by bees that buzzed around in Georgia 5,500 years ago -- some 2,000 years older than the honey found in Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen’s tomb, which had been considered the oldest before, Rustavi2 proudly pointed out.
As in ancient Egypt, in ancient Georgia, honey was apparently packed for people's journeys into the afterlife. And more than one type, too -- along for the trip were linden, berry, and a meadow-flower variety.
The honey vessels, two human teeth and other artifacts were found in the tomb of an apparent female noblewoman, which was discovered in 2003 during the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
