First of all, I would like to share some issues with you. Yesterday was a very happy day for me. My old dream was finally realized. The construction of the Tbilisi-Tskhinvali-Sukhumi motorway began. My friends and I often think about what we are going to leave as our legacy. Some people leave debts, destroyed buildings and lost territories, some people leave nothing at all, but one of the most important things we should leave behind is a well-tuned, modern infrastructure.
I have travelled on this road, from Gori to Tbilisi, many times and I know that it is like a lottery at night. The road is narrow, all you can see is oncoming lights, and if someone is drunk or dozing, God forbid, people get injured and killed.
This road will still exist in 40 years. Saakashvili will no longer be president then. Some people may not even remember when he was in office, but this road will still be there. In 2008, this road will reach the Tskhinvali turning [near South Ossetia's border]. We may even extend it to Tskhinvali if our colleagues, the local population, really ask for it. It will reach Khashuri, I think, in 2009. In 2011 we should reach Batumi and Sukhumi.
This will cost about 500m dollars in total. The Tbilisi-Gori section will cost 150m dollars. Now we have this money because we no longer allow embezzlement. The budget is increasing every month. By the way, over the past two months revenues have exceeded the target. The technology used in the construction is modern. In short, I am very proud of that.
The second interesting issue is that today I finally approved - at least it was presented to me and I made some comments - a proposal for the construction of a new airport in Batumi. A completely new airport will be built in Batumi, Ajaria. We will build a runway and a terminal from scratch. Initially we wanted to refurbish the airport, but it would merely be a cosmetic repair, so it is better to build it from scratch. The construction will be finished by the end of this year.
So, we will have new airports in Tbilisi and Batumi this year, and next year I will try to attract investors for the Kopitnari airport near Kutaisi. The new motorway will reach [the town of] Kaspi. We are first going to Kaspi, where the Saakashvilis come from, by the way. In 2007, we will reach Gori District. The motorway will reach [the village of] Igoeti by the end of 2007, and in the spring of 2008 we will reach the Tskhinvali and then we will go farther. If we have more money, we may do it even faster. Now I will take your questions.
[Question] Mr President, I would like to hear your comments on recent events. There has been a lot of public interest in [Tbilisi banker Sandro] Girgvliani's murder. Opposition parties have noted that under Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili's leadership many old cases have been solved, like [footballer Kakha Kaladze's brother Levan] Kaladze's case, the Gori terrorist act, the attempt on US President Bush's life...
[President. Saakashvili] It was not only against Bush, I was attacked too. Come on, why am I always left out? Sorry, please, continue.
[Question] However, several senior officials are suspects in the Girgvliani murder. If we draw parallels, you dismissed Finance Minister Valeri Chechelashvili when some incidents of corruption were revealed in the Finance Ministry. So, will the interior minister be held responsible?
[President Saakashvili] I would like to say that, first of all, all such cases are a personal tragedy for me. I understand the Girgvliani family's misfortune very well. I am a father myself and I would not wish this on anyone.
It is doubly difficult when Interior Ministry officials are involved in this. However, it should also be noted that such things could happen in France or Britain and it often happens in America. There are few countries that deal with this. I have named some of these countries and Georgia has dealt with it the same way these countries would have done. We did nothing exceptional - we did nothing different from what they would have done. Everyone who was to be arrested has been arrested. If anyone else is involved, they will be held responsible too. Everything will be thoroughly investigated.
At the same time, I'm sure you will agree that Georgia has never had such an effective police force. Look at other post-Soviet countries, which country has such an effective police force? The most complex cases of terrorist acts have been solved.
What do you think, has all this fallen from the sky? Or perhaps someone handed this to us on a plate? It is Vano Merabishvili and his predecessors Irakli Okruashvili and Giorgi Baramidze who have done this. We have achieved this together. Our policemen, our lads have been working day and night to maintain order in this country. Therefore, we will support the police to the end. Will I sack the interior minister? Maybe I should also invite [opposition politicians] Jondi Baghaturia, Shalva Natelashvili and the Igor Giorgadze - Jemal Gogitidze duo to this office to solve all these problems? This is amusing and pathetic.
I know one thing. These are the same people complaining again and again. Sometimes they do not like Irakli Okruashvili, this year it is Merabishvili who irritates them. They will use any pretext. Today they are using a pretext that is very tragic, but they will use any pretext.
They will not run out of pretexts. I know one thing: there are pretexts and there are real reasons. I know full well what the real reason is. We have encroached on the interests of oligarchic capital, including Russian and other oligarchic capital, as well as very serious local mafia interests. Georgia was a country of crime bosses. Georgia was ruled by just a few crime bosses. The people who are shouting a lot today are unhappy because the confiscation of crime bosses' property has begun. We will adopt a zero tolerance policy on petty crime.
At the same time, police should protect human rights. Many policemen died in Georgia last year, many policemen. Several policemen died in Kutaisi. There were deaths elsewhere. Policemen should protect themselves in the same manner as they do in America, France and England. We intend to provide them with appropriate training and guide books. I also want us to bring experts from abroad to train them and tell them when and how much force they can use. A policeman should not be afraid of protecting himself or members of the public. Otherwise, we would not have order in Georgia. I intend to see that the merciless fight against corruption continues because it is our main problem. Georgia is in good shape because we have cut off all these people from the source of corruption. There will be no retreat on this. By the way, Merabishvili is a really great minister and I intend to help him in completing this task.
[Question] Mr President, a Georgian delegation has been stopped in Belarus. They are not being allowed to continue on their journey. It has even been alleged that [Georgian] MPs are terrorists. Names have been mentioned. What is your assessment of this?
[President Saakashvili] I too have had suspicions for quite some time that we are dealing with genuine terrorists. [Parliamentary defence and security committee chairman] Givi Targamadze is a well known saboteur and everyone knows how dangerous Giga Bokeria is. That was a joke.
Georgia is at the centre of a major battle. On the one hand, there is imperialism. This imperialism is not an abstract notion for us. It is very specific. These are the people who are not letting us go back into Abkhazia, the same people who are making trouble in Tskhinvali and Java. The empire is still on Georgian territory. The empire is also in Belarus and some other former Soviet republics. Imperial thinking will fight its corner to the end. That is why the struggle for freedom in Belarus is also a struggle for freedom in the entire post-Imperial region. This is a struggle for freedom in Abkhazia. There was a struggle for freedom in Tbilisi, Batumi and elsewhere where freedom had been endangered by these very brazen people.
I am writing an article on the issue of Belarus which will be published in Europe's biggest newspaper tomorrow. I intend to speak up because the people who are trying day and night to create disorder in Georgia - they are trying but they will fail - are also doing their best to preserve the dictatorship in Minsk.
What do you care about what happens in Belarus, I am asked. First, these values are very important to me. Second, I know what these values mean to Georgia. The struggle in Kiev - the leaders of the Ukrainian revolution have said that Georgia was the main source of their inspiration. I saw a picture of a Belarusian activist being beaten up in a magazine. He was holding Georgia's five-cross flag. The Georgian flag has become a symbol of freedom, a symbol of freedom.
The people who are beating up demonstrators in Minsk are exactly the same people who use old Soviet equipment to jam Georgian television stations in Tskhinvali, exactly the same people who persecute teachers in [Abkhazia's] Gali District because their pupils shout long live Georgia. They are all the same people. They may have different names but otherwise they are the same.
The Russian FSB representative in Tskhinvali, who is in charge of South Ossetia's so-called security ministry - I do not know whether his name is Yarovoy, Barankevich or something else - the person who arrested a Georgian priest in Ochamchire and the people who beat up demonstrators in Minsk - they are all the same people. They share the same convictions and are friends and relatives. These are people who hate freedom and democracy. These are people who are a big problem for Georgia and the rest of the world.
Of course we want good relations with Russia. We want it but unfortunately some people there often have different views. We will not betray our values because these values will ensure that Georgia becomes genuinely independent and united. We are in constant contact with our friends in other countries. The Lithuanians are very involved, as are representatives of other Baltic countries and Poland.
[Kremlin spin doctor] Gleb Pavlovskiy said, effectively, that Saakashvili should be killed. We have got a new Arutyunyan [man who threw a hand grenade in Tbilisi's main square when Saakashvili and Bush were on the stage addressing the crowd]. Lithuania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a protest note. For me it was a [changes thought] - No-one is afraid of Pavlovskiy. Saying this was a demonstration of weakness. It was a demonstration of a total feebleness and powerlessness. The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to this [Pavlovskiy's remark] even before our Ministry of Foreign Affairs which has been responding to everything in a very timely manner recently. Do you know who was the first to issue a statement over the violation of our airspace by a foreign aircraft? It was the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. That would have been unthinkable even a year ago. This was made possible by our tireless trips and talk that we are the Georgian state. The fact that we can become an official NATO candidate this year is ultimate recognition of Georgia being an inseparable part of the Euro-Atlantic area. It is an acknowledgment that Georgia's sovereignty is as dear to the big countries of the Euro-Atlantic area as their own sovereignty and their independence, their borders and their freedoms.
Hence, Belarus is not an ide fixe. It is a fundamental issue. I am convinced that the people of Belarus l be freed and Europe will be finally united. By the way, we have said, and we have been quoted saying this on numerous occasions, that the new wave of European unification which began with the rose revolution will continue. This is an important historical process which will spread into Belarus and elsewhere where people are persecuted because of their views.
[Question] Mr President, will Russia be among these countries?
[President Saakashvili] I want to say that we want to have good relations with Russia. There are forces in Russia who are scared of Georgia. They are scared of Georgia's success. They had predicted that the Georgian government wouldn't last until the autumn. The autumn has passed. Now they are saying that it will fall in the spring. Whenever there is a gathering of 300 people they put it on television. You can switch to a Russian channel and see it for yourself. A mass rally was held in Tbilisi today and the government is falling [they say]. Switch to a French channel and you will see that there has been a rally in France. There was a clash at the Sorbonne to which 3,000 people came from all over. Police used all means at their disposal. No-one has said that the French government is falling.
We have been predicting this, our local provincial people and RTR and NTV [Russian channels] are saying. They will be saying it for the next eight years. They can keep saying for the next eight years the following: we have said that they will not survive the spring, will not survive next autumn, will not survive the spring after and war will start in a week. A week has been going on for three years, more than two years.
Therefore, we should realize that Georgia must continue on this path of development whether they like it or not. I wish more Russian capital was invested in Georgia. I welcome the investment of Russian capital in all sectors of the economy. Unfortunately, they said that money wouldn't be invested in Georgia and that Georgia would collapse. It has turned out that what had not been done for decades is being done now. Twenty-five hotels are being built in Ajaria. Their construction will begin this year. There is a real construction boom there. I do not know where to find enough builders in Georgia. That is my main problem now. The construction of hotels on a mass scale will begin in Borjomi this year. The most successful and the most modern entertainment centres are being built in Ajaria and will then hopefully be built in Tbilisi too. All major chains are opening hotels in Tbilisi. You do not see this anywhere else in the former Soviet Union apart from Moscow. The Georgian economy grew by more than 9 per cent last year. This year the growth will be over 10 per cent. This year Georgia will be the third fastest growing economy in the world. These are not my data. These are the data from The Economist, the most authoritative magazine on the subject. Of all the non-oil producing countries it will be the fastest growing economy in the world, ahead of China and the rest.
Why am I saying this? Of course, we have extreme poverty and huge problems. People are in need and I know this very well. What about all that talk that they are sorry for the Georgian people? The people saying that are the people who have doubled gas and energy prices for us, they are the people who have closed fruit export markets to us, seriously harming many of our peasants. The people saying they are sorry are the people who watch on as problems are created in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region [South Ossetia] every minute. We do not want them to be sorry for us. We must show them that they should look after themselves while we look after ourselves. That is very simple.
Of course we are very poor but I know for sure that by the end of next year every Georgian school will be equipped with computers and Internet access, nearly every school. This programme will be completed in 2007. Just 10 per cent of Russian schools will have this, against 100 per cent of our schools. I know for sure that 60 per cent of our schools will be renovated to European standards in 2008. Nothing of this sort is being done in Russia. I know for sure that next year we will complete the renovation of all major hospitals. We will modernize the Republican Hospital, the Cancer Centre and the Gori and Zugdidi hospitals and we will train doctors. I know for sure that there will be a modern outpatient clinic in every district centre in Georgia by the end of 2008.
Children in Tbilisi from grade one to grade six will receive free uniforms this year. I was very much pleased with this idea of Tbilisi mayor Ugulava. He keeps busy. You can see his head sticking out of rubbish bins, disinfecting places and changing bulbs in various places like Gldanula, Ponichala and so on. Every school in Tbilisi and every school in Ajaria will have these uniforms. We will replace desks in schools throughout Tbilisi and Telavi this year and throughout Georgia next year. This is a real change. They will no longer have makeshift heaters with children having to collect firewood and parents having to collect money. They will have modern heating systems and they will have modern desks as they do in America, France and England.
I always compare what we have with what they have because I want us to be like them not like a Third World country. I want us to have what they have. We will not be living like the French three years from now but our schools, universities and outpatient clinics should be like theirs. Our motorway should be better than theirs because we are building it using the most modern concrete technology. This is my pride. When we have all this, and we will have it in 2008, just imagine it, before the end of my presidential term which ends in 2009, by 2009 Georgia will have a modern motorway linking the east with the west and a completely self-sufficient energy system.
For the first time since regaining independence all of Georgia is illuminated. Do you think that this is a gift from someone? They are constantly trying to thwart our efforts. They are doing everything possible to stop us having electricity. Have we not provided electricity to all of Georgia? In 2008 Georgian hydroelectric power plants will be generating enough for us not to have to import electricity at all. In 2009 we will be selling electricity. By the end of 2008 we will have a modern health service that meets European standards, a modern education system that meets European standards, a modern transport system that meets European standards, a modern energy sector that will be completely self-sufficient, and we will be NATO members. We will be members of the North Atlantic alliance. The enlargement summit takes place in 2008.
I am telling you all this because I want us to rejoice together. I do not want to speak about a specific country. Do you think that our ill-wishers do not know this? They do just as we do and they will do everything to ... However, just as they have failed to do damage to us so far they will fail in the future.
The final question, please, and I will give you a short answer.
[Question] I would like to ask a question about the opposition rallies that have taken place outside the parliament building. Their main demand is the withdrawal of legislation on the compulsory use of cash registers by traders. They are saying that unless their request is met they will make political demands.
[President Saakashvili] You have just given me a heart attack. This is a very simple issue. Rallies of this sort take place in every democratic country. You can switch to any foreign channel and see it for yourself. Those who think that something extraordinary has happened in Georgia either do not know what is happening or are exaggerating everything because of their provincialism and ignorance. It is very simple. This is happening in every democratic country. God forbid anyone in Georgia not being able to protest, God forbid. If that happens we will turn into a North Korea or a Belarus. If we want to be like Belarus why are we critical of them? We are a country in which everyone can express any view, even the most unacceptable ones. However, as in truly democratic countries, the decisions are made by a majority of the vote.
I understand perfectly well those who have specific demands. Being a market trader is a normal, honourable trade. Any trade is very important, honourable and worthy of appreciation by the country. The state, however, also has its own interests and laws. Whatever the state does should be done to facilitate its development and turn it into a normal country. We must at last become a normal country. This is very simple. Therefore, we think carefully before taking decisions but then we see our decisions through. There will always be unhappy people. This is normal. These sorts of things are then settled through elections.
Those who were protesting over the medical college last spring - do you still remember them? Have we not forgotten them? There was a lot going on. We were right and saw the decision through. I remember the protests against the relocation of the Batumi market two years ago. Now that market is in an excellent location. I was there and saw those people trading perfectly well. No-one did any damage to them. A modern, beautiful, glass shopping centre, with a swimming pool and other sports facilities where young people will be improving their health, is being built in place of the old filthy market. That's the way it will be in the future.
They always say that something is happening here. I know what is happening here. Various groups want to position themselves as the true opposition ahead of the local elections. I am not Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenko, I do not appoint the opposition. These sorts of things are won in elections. We won the presidential election, we won the parliamentary election and we also won the parliamentary by-elections in all five constituencies last autumn. I want to tell all political parties - this won't come as a surprise to them and I don't want them to get upset - that we will also win the local elections. We won't win every constituency but we will win over all. Do you know why we will win? We will win because never in the history of Georgia has so much work been done over such a short period of time, neither in Soviet times nor after.
This translation is published with permission from BBC Monitoring, Reading UK
Communications Office
of the President of Georgia