February 25 The Day of Soviet Occupation of Georgia

TBILISI, GEORGIA – 92st anniversary of one of the most tragic events in the history of Georgia – the Soviet Occupation Day – is marked today in Georgia. The  holiday is observed to recall the Red Army invasion and occupation of Georgia in 1921.

On the night of 11/12 February 1921, at Russian communist Ordzhonikidze`s instigation, Bolsheviks attacked local Georgian military posts in the today’s Armenian district of Lorri and the nearby village of Shulaveri, near the Armenian and Azerbaijani borders.

The 11th Red Army occupied Tbilisi the capital of Georgia. 25 February 1921By 17 February Soviet infantry and cavalry divisions supported by aircraft were less than 15 kilometers northeast of Tbilisi. The Georgian army put up a stubborn fight in defense of the approaches to the capital, which they held for a week in the face of overwhelming Red Army superiority.

30 Cadets died in the last fight for independence in 1921 in Georgia. Cadets were buried near the military church, which was situated on the territory of the parliament in the first half of the past century. Along with them was also killed Maro Makashvili, the daughter of the head of the writers` union Kote Makashvili.

On July 21, 2010, Georgia declared February 25 Soviet Occupation Day to recall the Red Army invasion of Georgia in 1921.

Russia still one of the most Corrupt Countries In The World

CORRUPTION IN RUSSIA – Russia’s central bank governor has lifted the lid on $ 49bn in illegal capital flight year – more than half of which, he says, was controlled “by one well-organized group of individuals” that he declined to name, writes The Financial Times.

Sergei Ignatiev, due to step down in June after 11 years in his post, is seldom outspoken about any issue other than interest rates. But he unburdened himself in an interview with the Moscow newspaper Vedomosti about money leaving the country through the back door, which he said equaled 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product last year.

“This might be payment for supplies of narcotics . . . illegal imports . . . bribes and kickbacks for bureaucrats . . . and avoiding taxes”, he told the daily, which is part-owned by the Financial Times.

Russia’s central bank has access to daily monitoring data on all payments within the commercial banking system, and Ignatiev said the $ 49bn figure was mainly drawn from analyzing “payments made by Russian organizations to non-residents, the stated aims of which are clearly false”.

He added: “Apart from this, our analysis shows that more than half of the total of shady operations is conducted by firms directly or indirectly linked to each other by payments. The impression is created that they are all controlled by one well-organized group of individuals”.

Ignatiev also drew attention to the prevalence of what is known in Russian as “one-day firms”, which operate as conduits for money transfers and then vanish before they pay taxes. He estimated that half of the 3.9m registered commercial organizations in Russia were inactive and “waiting for their hour to come”.

A Moscow-based economist, who asked not to be identified, said the schemes described by Ignatiev were exactly those being investigated now in several jurisdictions in connection with the case of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in police custody in 2009 after he attempted to track a fraudulent tax refund that appeared to benefit a group of bankers and law enforcement officers.

“What Magnitsky was looking into – that was the tip of the iceberg”, the economist said.

Igor Yurgens, a former adviser to Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, said that if what Ignatiev said about a “single organized group” was true, “such an operation would not be possible without serious support from law enforcement”.

Ignatiev appeared to allude to somewhat lackluster efforts by Russia’s law enforcement agencies at tackling the problem, saying: “In the event of a serious concentration of effort by the . . . agencies, I think such people, and the beneficiaries of such operations, could be found”.

Sergei Aleksashenko, a former first deputy central bank governor from 1995-98, said the capital flight schemes spoken about by Ignatiev could be deduced from the daily commercial banking data. He said: “It is easy to spot if you know what to look for”.

However, he pointed out, excessive diligence in bank supervision was hazardous to one’s health in Russia. Ignatiev’s former deputy in charge of bank supervision, Andrei Kozlov, was shot dead in 2006 after launching a crusade to clean up the banking sector, revoking the licenses of several banks. The head of a private bank, closed by Kozlov for violating money laundering regulations, was convicted two years ago of ordering his murder.

Kozlov’s successor, Gennady Melikyan, deputy governor of the central bank in charge of bank supervision, resigned for unclear reasons in September 2011.

Acquaintances of Ignatiev found his public revelations remarkable, adding that his decision to unburden himself about high-level corruption was probably connected with his forthcoming exit.

“He usually doesn’t make big public statements unrelated to monetary policy”, said Sergei Guriev, rector of the New Economic School in Moscow, who serves on the board of state-owned Sberbank together with Ignatiev.

“He is a very intelligent person of high integrity, and in closed-door meetings he is always very straight. Probably, he just believes that central bankers should not speak too much in public”.

U.S. will never recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states

U.S. will never recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, – U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden told the international gathering of top diplomats and defense officials at the annual Munich Security Conference.

He said Washingon and Moscow “have serious differences on issues like Syria, missile defense, NATO enlargement, democracy, human rights.”

“These differences are real,” he said at the start of the second day of the event,  “but we continue to see opportunities for the Unites States and Russia to partner in ways that advance our mutual security interest and the interest of the international community.”

Speaking just days after the new U.S. administration began its second term, he also restated Washington`s position that it does not recognize spheres of influence. He cited the case of two breakaway Georgian republics whose independence Russia recognized following its brief war with Georgia in 2008.

“The United States will not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states,” Biden said. “We will not recognize any nation having a sphere of influence. It will remain America`s view that sovereign states have the right to make their own decisions and choose their own alliances.”

We would like to remind our readers that Abkhazia’s(Original name of this region is: Apkhazeti) and South Ossetia’s(Original name of this region is: Shida Kartli) independence is an excuse that Russia uses in order to keep a foot on the ground in the South Caucasus, as an occupier. If it weren’t for the so-called declarations of independence of these two occupied Georgian regions, Russia has no business or legal grounds to be in these regions. Abkhazia and South Ossetia are not independent and never will be. In both regions, huge contingents of Russian military and secret services are stationed.

In 1992-1993 and in 2008, Russia organized an ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. More than 400,000 Georgians were driven out of Abkhazia & South Ossetia and are not allowed to return to their homes until today.  (Medvedev: “Georgians are very close and dear nation for us“…)

Read more about: Why Abkhazia’s independence is a fake
Other Sources The illegitimacy of Abkhazia’s independence
Resources: Ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia
Related posts: How Russia prepared and executed ethnic cleansing of Georgians in South Ossetia

Civilians kidnapped during passport check in Russian occupied Abkhazia

RUSSIAN OCCUPATION OF ABKHAZIA – Yesterday, in the course of “passport checks” several people were kidnapped in the Gali district of occupied Georgian province of Apkhazeti(Abkhazia). The check was conducted in the ethnicaly Georgian villages of the lower zone – Nabakevi and Tagiloni.

According to prokremlin occupational news source: “Respublika Abkhazia”, in a wade area in Nabakevi that locals call Amerid Ekhvaya wade, law enforcement officers saw a blue Lada car with number signs A316RV. The driver seeing the police tried to escape. The car was stopped by three warning shots into the air. Vitaly Sondzia, born in 1980, resident of the village of Bargebi of the Gali district was driving the car. He only had a birth certificate with him, which stated that a Georgian passport had been granted to him. Examination showed that Sondzia was drunk.

Another person in the car was Bejan Kirkhelia, born in 1963, a resident of the village of Sida of the Gali district of occupied Apkhazeti  with previous convictions for distribution and consumption of drugs and robbery.

Kirkhelia and Sondzia were subjected to administrative sentence – they were fined for drunken driving, and Kirkhelia – for attempted illegal crossing of the line of Russian occupation.

New Evidence – Russian Cluster Bombs in Syria

New evidence has emerged that the Syrian air force has used Russian cluster munitions in recent days, Human Rights Watch reported. During the August 2008 aggression against Georgia, Russia used cluster munitions against Georgian civilians

More than 100 kidnapped in Russian occupied Abkhazia

More than 100 people were kidnapped during the last two weeks in the Gali district of occupied Georgian region Abkhazia (Apkhazeti) for not carrying “identity documents” during passport checks. The ringleader of the pro-Kremlin militia of Gali Lawrence Kogonia speaking to the local newspaper “Respublika Abkhazia” explained that carrying identity cards in the Gali district was a must, as it was a “border area”.

According to ringelader detained persons were sent to the “police station”, where relatives brought their documents, or the heads of administration confirmed the fact of residence of these people in the villages.

Kogonia also noted that during the “control” check two residents of the Georgian-controlled territory were also detained. Their names have not been announced. For the moment, says the chief of police, they are waiting for court decision “on the accusation of illegal border crossing”. He also said that the passport check will continue, but it will be more targeted.

Pro_Kremlin regime of occupied Abkhazia(Apkhazeti) holds “passport check” in Georgian-populated Gali district of Abkhazia(Apkhazeti), occupied by the Russian federation, on the basis of resolution, adopted at the meeting of the so-called Security Council, on strengthening the occupation line on the river Enguri and restoring order in the surrounding area.

Gali is home to the major part of the Russian occupation forces with several KGB border posts, as well as the newly built occupational military bases. Despite the fact that the previous de-facto regime considered the presence of the Russian occupiers in the Georgian-populated area to be the guarantor of security, the new regime’s actions indicate that the security provided by the Russian occupiers do not satisfy the requirements of occupied main city of Sukhumi, so they had to use their own measures to establish order.

These measures include increasing the staff of the Center for special purposes in Gali district – a militarized unit for special assignments; also tighter passport regulations, strengthening the Gali police and security services, creation of special unit for responding to incidents and carrying out preventive work in the area. It is also planned to re-inforce the occupation line on the river Enguri with technical, electronic and other means of observation, as well as ensuring its protection by border guards.

Occupied Abkhazia – Russian terror against Georgian civilians continues

More than 100 people were kidnapped during the last two weeks in the Gali district of occupied Abkhazia (Apkhazeti) for not carrying identity documents during so-called “passport checks”.

The pro-Kremlin ringleader of the gang called: “Police of Gali” Lawrence Kogonia speaking to the local newspaper “Respublika Abkhazia” explained that carrying identity cards in the Gali district was a must, as it was a “border area”.

According to this pro-Kremlin ringleader, kidnapped persons were sent to the police station, where relatives brought their documents, or the heads of administration confirmed the fact of residence of these people in the villages.

Kogonia also noted that during the “control check” two residents of the Georgian-controlled territory were also detained. Their names have not been announced. For the moment, says the chief of police, they are waiting for a court decision “on the accusation of illegal border crossing”. He also said that the passport checks will continue, but will be more targeted.

The pro-Russian Abkhazian regime of the occupied Georgian city of Sukhumi holds “passport checks” in the Georgian-populated Gali district of Abkhazia (Apkhazeti), occupied by the Russian Federation, on the basis of a resolution, adopted at the meeting of the so-called Security Council, on strengthening the occupation line on the river Enguri and restoring order in the surrounding area.

Gali is home to the major part of the Russian occupation forces with several border posts, as well as the newly built military bases. Despite the fact that the previous de-facto regime considered the presence of the Russian occupiers in the Georgian-populated area to be the guarantor of security, the new regime’s actions indicate that the security provided by the Russian occupiers do not satisfy the requirements of capital Sukhumi, so they had to use their own measures to establish order.

These measures include increasing the staff of the pro-Russian militia gang called “Center for special purposes”  in the occupied Gali district – a militarized unit for special assignments; also tighter passport regulations, strengthening the Gali police and security services, creation of special unit for responding to incidents and carrying out preventive work in the area. It is also planned to re-inforce the occupation line on the river Enguri with technical, electronic and other means of observation, as well as ensuring its protection by border guards.