Georgia’s Saakashvili holds out olive branch to PM, gets cold reception

PanARMENIAN.Net - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili held out an olive branch to Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili on Friday, April 19 proposing an end to months of friction that threatens stability in the former Soviet republic, Reuters said.

Saakashvili struck a conciliatory tone in remarks to thousands of supporters at their first big rally since his party was swept from power by Ivanishvili's opposition movement in a parliamentary election last October.

The defeat set up a tense situation in the Caucasus state, a conduit for pipelines pumping Caspian Sea energy westward and a platform for geopolitical rivalry between the United States and Russia, which fought a brief war with Georgia in 2008.

Saakashvili is barred by term limits from seeking re-election this autumn and the president's powers have already been reduced, but his United National Movement wants to remain relevant.

"I'd like to extend a hand of friendship to them," Saakashvili said of Ivanishvili's government, addressing more than 10,000 supporters in the centre of the capital Tbilisi. "If we, your opposition, are optimistic, you should be optimistic too - and not angry," he said.

But he got a cool reception from Ivanishvili's camp.

The rally was framed as a new start for Saakashvili's party and a show of support for the pro-Western course set by the president, who was first elected after leading the peaceful "Rose Revolution" protests in 2003 that swept out the old guard.

Saakashvili cultivated close relations with Washington, and his efforts to bring Georgia into NATO were one of the factors that led to the five-day war with Russia in 2008.

Ivanishvili, a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia, fought off suggestions from Saakashvili during the parliamentary election campaign that he was a Kremlin stooge. Ivanishvili has pledged to make relations with the West a priority, following in Saakashvili's footsteps, but says he also wants to improve ties with Moscow.