Georgia: opposition relies on Western help in talking with authorities

Today, a meeting took place of the foreign diplomats accredited in Tbilisi with representatives of the opposition. The leaders of the latter acquainted the diplomats with their vision of the outcomes of the meetings with President Mikhail Saakashvili and Parliament Speaker David Bakradze.

Denis Kief, Ambassador of the Great Britain, has emphasized after the meeting that diplomats should not and are not going to interfere with the Georgia's internal affairs; however, if arrangements are reached between the government and oppositional parties of Georgia, the diplomatic corps will ensure the effective mechanism of monitoring over fulfilment of such arrangements.

David Usupashvili, one of the leaders of the Republican Party, has expressed his satisfaction with the meeting with diplomats and hopes to get help of the diplomatic corps, should the opposition reach arrangements with the authorities. At the same time, he said that the government was inadequately assessing the situation. "We are ready to talk about constitutional changes, but the changes suggested by the President, will only increase his power," Mr Usupashvili has emphasized.

Nino Burdzhanadze, leader of the "Democratic Movement - United Georgia" and former Speaker of Parliament, has emphasized that diplomats had been provided with quite different data on the results of the meeting of the opposition with power officials. "I've explained to diplomats that only President's resignation is a guarantee of Georgia's sustainable development," she has emphasized. According to her story, the only Saakashvili's statement that "he'd defend journalists of the Public Broadcaster of Georgia," has caused today's picket near the building of the Public Television.

We remind you that today since morning, near the building of the Public Television of Georgia, located in the Kostava Street, activists of the opposition again blocked all the entrances to the building except for one, having arranged the so-called "corridor of shame". Oppositionists hope that the journalists who work for Georgian television "will make a decision to be objective."