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“What does Bagapsh want?”

Sakartvelos Respublika reports that according to Tornike Kilanava, Gali coordinator for the Tbilisi-backed Abkhazian government-in-exile, Abkhaz separatist forces are issuing Abkhaz passports to ethnic Georgians living in Gali.

He said the issuing of Abkhaz passports is directly controlled by Ruslan Kishmaria, the Gali representative of the de facto Abkhaz president, Sergey Bagapsh.

Bagapsh has demanded that all ethnic Georgians in separatist Abkhazia be issued with Abkhaz passports, the newspaper writes. Bagapsh also reportedly endeavored, unsuccessfully, to issue Russian passports to 90 percent of the Abkhaz population by the end of 2007.



“Love defeats drug addiction”

In an Old Tbilisi district, a basement theater run by young people is spreading anti-drug messages with its play “Love Instead of Drug Addiction,” Kviris Palitra writes.

Theater founder Besik Khintibidze says the play will continue to run as long as drug addiction remains a problem in Georgia.

Opening night was in May 2007.

“The play is one of the most successful plays we’ve put on,” deputy director of the art unit Soso Sologhashvili told the newspaper. “After the play, the audience is leaving the theater in tears, and this is the most important thing for us: to show people that love will survive in the world and defeat all evil.”



“Prime minister of Azerbaijan to attend Mikheil Saakashvili’s inauguration”

Akhali Taoba reports that Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizade will attend the inauguration of the newly reelected Mikheil Saakashvili.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was reportedly one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate Saakashvili on his reelection, but the newspaper speculates that he has refused to come to Georgia for the inauguration.

Other guests for Saakashvili’s second presidential inauguration include Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Turkish President Abdullah Gul is also expected.

The inauguration will be held on January 20.



“George Bush congratulated Saakashvili on victory in the presidential elections and wished him success”

Rezonansi carried somewhat a fictionalized account of US President George W. Bush’s congratulatory call to president-elect Mikheil Saakashvili.

In addition to the standard congratulations, the newspaper writes that Bush called the snap presidential election “impressive,” wished success to the Georgian people, and committed to sending US officials to Saakashvili’s inauguration.

According to Washington’s description of the phone call, Bush said none of those things.



“Soso Tsiskarishvili: Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili and Minister of Internal Affairs Vano Merabishvili will remain in the government!”

Political analyst Soso Tsiskarishvili told Sakartvelos Respublika that president-elect Mikheil Saakashvili will not be willing to sack unpopular Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili or Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili.

“It is very difficult to predict Saakashvili’s political calculations, it’s obvious that Adeishvili and Merabishvili will not be replaced,” Tsiskarishvili stated.

Tsiskarishvili criticized the president-elect for ignoring public sentiment in his decision-making.