Barack Obama Has Made a Bid at Breakfast

Washington seems to have determined who to support among the Georgian opposition figures in the election campaigns of 2012–2013. Last week the leader of the Our Georgia-Free Democrats party, Alasania, was invited to breakfast with U.S. President Barack Obama and had several meetings with significant U.S. politicians. However, most observers say that the attention directed toward Mr. Alasania does not mean that Washington has finally put an end to current Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

For over half a century, the National Prayer Breakfast with the U.S. president has been held annually in Washington on the first Thursday of February. It has traditionally involved the most influential senators, members of the House of Representatives and foreign visitors who are considered U.S. friends and allies.

This year the honor of having breakfast with U.S. President Barack Obama was first awarded to representatives of Georgia. Among them were leaders of the ruling United National Movement, Vice Speaker Mikheil Machavariani and MP Gigi Tsereteli. However, most observers drew attention to the fact that the Georgian opposition was represented at breakfast by the chairman of the Our Georgia-Free Democrats party, Alasania.

Alasania is an international lawyer by profession. In 2002 he was appointed deputy minister of security, and two years later he led the pro-Georgian government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia in exile. Mr. Alasania has always stood for peaceful settlement of conflicts and therefore enjoys a certain privilege in the ruling circles of Abkhazia. From 2006 to 2008 he worked as permanent representative of Georgia to the UN but resigned from that post in protest against the failure of President Saakashvili to avoid war, cunningly provoked by Russia. In 2009, he headed the opposition Alliance for Georgia and in the summer of 2010, the party of Free Democrats. In the last election for the mayor of Tbilisi on May 30, 2010, Mr. Alasania garnered 20 percent of the votes.

“It’s one thing when the United States is only familiar with the position and point of view of our government and quite another when they find out about an alternative position,”* said the Kommersant secretary for international affairs of the Free Democrats party, David Zalkaliani. According to him, Washington’s most important goal is “to make sure that there is an alternative force in Georgia capable of taking power into their own hands and building strategic alliances with the United States.”

According to Kommersant’s source in Georgian diplomatic circles, “the embassy of Georgia in the U.S. actively participated in organizing the visit of the delegation” to the breakfast and even helped Mr. Alasaniya meet with a number of influential political figures. In particular, the leader of the Free Democrats held talks with former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, to whom President Saakashvili recently awarded the title “National Hero of Georgia” for his support during the five-day war. Following the meeting, Mr. Alasania said that the U.S. would support the change of power in Georgia by peaceful means. “I agreed that the transition should take place not in a revolutionary but in a democratic way, that is a result of transparent and fair elections,” said the politician.

As explained to Kommersant by former Foreign Minister of Georgia Irakli Menagarishvili, by choosing Alasaniya, “Americans have demonstrated some attention toward him.” However, Georgian experts are convinced that the invitation to the leader of the Free Democrats in Washington does not mean non-cooperation with Saakashvili. “Pay attention to the fact that Americans have balanced the visit of Alasaniya with the inviting of the leaders of the pro-presidential party,” said independent expert David Avalishvili to Kommersant, emphasizing that “American politicians in general tend not to put all their eggs in one basket.” According to the expert, “Washington has hinted to anyone of the many opposition leaders that the United States is ready to deal.”

Opposition leaders uniquely embraced the choice of U.S. authorities. “It is good that Americans are willing to cooperate with the opposition and that they have invited Irakli Alasania to Washington,” one of the leaders of the Republican Party, David Berdzenishvili, told Kommersant. According to him, the U.S. government showed that it “supports truly democratic forces, while Nino Burjanadze (former Speaker of the Georgian Parliament) and Noghaideli (ex-prime minister of the country) are only needed for Vladimir Putin.”

At the same time, another part of the opposition accuses the U.S. of insincerity. “Certain circles in the U.S. have appointed our President Misha Saakashvili and are now appointing the opposition,” said Giorgi Gugava, political secretary of the Labor Party, expressing his outrage in an interview with Kommersant, accusing Washington of ignoring the “aspirations and preferences of the Georgian people.”

*Editor’s Note: All quotations contained herein, though accurately translated, could not be verified.