Timeline Georgia
Return to home
CIA Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/gg.html
Culture: http://server.parliament.ge/CULTURE/GENINF/Cultur.html
ICL: http://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/law/gg__indx.html
Lonely Planet: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/dest/eur/geo.htm
USLC: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/getoc.html
USSD: http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/georgia_9811_bgn.html
The capital is Tbilisi.
c1.7 million Hominid fossils and
crude stone tools of this time were found in the former Soviet
repub-lic of Georgia in 1991 beneath the ruins of a medieval castle at
Dmanisi. A 3rd smaller skull was found in 2002. All 3 were tentatively
classified as Homo erectus. One skull of a man indicated that he had
been almost toothless for at least 2 years before death.
(SFC, 5/12/00, p.A5)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A5)(SFC, 4/7/05,
p.A3)
8000BC Wine was produced in the region known as
Colchis (later Georgia) as early as this time.
(Econ, 11/15/08, p.100)
683-685 Khazars invaded Transcaucasia and inflicted
much damage and stole much booty. The Khazar invaders killed the rulers
of Armenia and Georgia.
(TJOK, p.159)
1089-1125 David the Builder, a king who increased
Georgia's wealth and prestige after, at age 16, taking the reins of a
country beset by attackers.
(AP, 1/25/04)(Internet)
1172-1216 Shota Rustaveli, a Georgian poet, lived
about this time. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest
representatives of the literature of the medieval world. His literary
work in-cluded “The Knight in the Panther's Skin” ("Vepkhistkaosani" in
Georgian), the Georgian na-tional epic poem.
(http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9064497)
1178 The wise King Giorgi III of
Georgia had his daughter, Tamara (19), crowned as his co-ruler to
provide an orderly succession.
(www.undelete.org/woa/woa01-18.html)
1204-1205 Georgia’s Queen Tamara marched with her men
to the rousing victory over the Turks at the Battle of Basiani where
she is hailed with the cry, "Our King Tamara."
(www.undelete.org/woa/woa01-18.html)
1212 Jan 18, Queen Tamara of
Georgia in Transcaucasia died after a 24-year reign during which her
soldiers proclaim her "our King."
(www.undelete.org/woa/woa01-18.html)
1236 Queen Rusudani (41), the
daughter of Queen Tamara, fled Georgia as the unstoppable Mongol hordes
ravished the area. She had been proclaimed "King" at the death of her
brother.
(www.undelete.org/woa/woa01-18.html)
1258 Feb 10, Huegu (Hulega Khan),
a Mongol leader and grandson of Genghis Khan, seized Baghdad following
a 4-day assault. Mongol invaders from Central Asia took over Baghdad
and ended the Abbasid-Seljuk Empire. They included Uzbeks, Kazaks,
Georgians and other groups. Some 200 to 800 thousand people were killed
and looting lasted 17 days.
(ATC, p.91)(AP, 2/10/99)(SFC, 4/12/03, p.A1)
1395 Tamerlane, a Turkic
conqueror, swept into Southern Russia and Georgia driving locals into
the hills.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A12)
1783 Jul 24, Georgia became a
protectorate of tsarist Russia.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1801 South Ossetia was absorbed
into the Russian Empire along with Georgia.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A12)
1876 May, Residents in Tbilisi,
Georgia, found a collection of ancient gold jewels in the muddy streets
following a downpour. The objects were dated from the 5th to the 1st
century BC when the region was known as Colchis.
(Econ, 11/15/08, p.100)
1890 The Marxist Armenian
Revolutionary Federation, called the Dashnaks, was founded in the
Russian Empire, in Tiflis (Georgia).
(http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/Armenia/justin.html)
1905 Mar 8, The peasant revolt in
Russia was reported to be spreading to Georgia.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1906 Apr 10, A report from Russia
said 7 soldiers were killed during a rebellion at the garrison in
Tiflis (Tbilisi, Georgia). On April 17 it was reported that 315
soldiers were killed in a fight be-tween mutineers and loyal troops.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A15)
1907 Stalin (1879-1953) organized
an armed robbery on 2 coaches carrying treasure to the state bank in
central Tbilisi, Georgia. He delivered his gains to Lenin. In 2007
Simon Sebag Montefiore authored “Young Stalin.”
(Econ, 5/19/07, p.88)
1918 South Ossetians made a bid to
break away from Georgia and thousands fled in the en-suing violence.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A12)
1921 Feb 12, Soviet troops invaded
neighboring Georgia.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1922 South Ossetia became an
autonomous region within the Soviet Republic of Georgia.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A12)
1928 Jan 25, Eduard Shevardnadze,
foreign minister of USSR, was born in Soviet Georgia.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1931 USSR leader Joseph Stalin
turned Abkhazia into an autonomous region of Georgia. Be-ria, his
secret police chief, later resettled Georgians from the western part of
the country in Abkhazia.
(Econ, 7/5/08, p.64)
1936 Dec 5, Armenian SSR,
Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR be-came
constituent republics of Soviet Union.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1986 The film “Repentance” was
directed by Tengiz Abuladze. It was an allegory about a small town
mayor who gradually becomes a despot.
(SFC, 9/23/98, p.A10)
1987 Sep 13, Soviet Foreign
Minister Eduard Shevardnadze arrived in Washington for talks aimed at a
possible superpower summit; Shevardnadze carried with him a letter from
Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to President Reagan.
(AP, 9/13/97)
1988 Jan 6, Soviet Foreign
Minister Eduard Shevardnadze was quoted by the Afghan news agency as
saying the Kremlin wanted to pull an estimated 115,000 soldiers from
Afghanistan in the coming year.
(AP, 1/6/98)
1989 Apr, Troops of Russian
General Igor Rodionov killed 29 demonstrators in Tbilisi. Troops under
Russian Gen’l Lebed killed 18 protestors, including 16 women and
children, in Tbilisi, Georgia. Colonel Gen’l. Igor Rodionov ordered the
troops to break up anti-Kremlin protests in Tbilisi.
(WSJ, 6/18/96, p.A12)(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A11)(http: ICL)
1989-1982 South Ossetia defended itself from Georgia
with aid from Russia and about 1,000 peo-ple died in the fighting. Some
25-40,000 people fled the area.
(SFC, 9/1/98, p.A10)
1990 Aug, South Ossetia, a region
of north central Georgia with a population of about 100,000, declared
itself sovereign. Ethnic Ossetians speak a language similar to Persian.
Georgia abolished South Ossetia’s autonomous status following the
attempted break. Georgian leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia declared South
Ossetia part of Georgia and marched on Tskhin-vali, the declared
capital.
(SFC, 9/1/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A12)
1990 Dec 20, Soviet Foreign
Minister Eduard Shevardnadze shocked Soviet lawmakers by announcing his
resignation, warning that "dictatorship is coming."
(AP, 12/20/00)
1991 Apr 9, Georgia SSR declared
independence from the USSR.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country))
1991 Apr 29, More than 100 people
were killed and some 100,000 were left homeless when a strong
earthquake struck Soviet Georgia.
(AP, 4/29/01)
1991 Jun, Georgian leader Zviad
Gamsakhurdia, a noted author and scholar of the iconic Georgian poet
Shota Rustaveli, was elected president of Georgia.
(AP, 3/28/07)
1992 Jan 6, After two weeks of
fighting, ousted Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia fled the
capital, Tbilisi.
(AP, 1/6/02)
1992 Jul, Russia brokered a cease
fire between South Ossetia and Georgia.
(SFC, 9/1/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A12)
1992 In Georgia Eduard
Shevardnadze, former Soviet foreign minister, was elected speaker of
Parliament and the became the country's leader.
(WSJ, 11/6/95, p.A-1)(SFC, 11/24/03, p.A11)
1992 In Tbilisi, Georgia, the
central-heating system went out of service. Carbon-monoxide poisonings
began as residents turned to wood and gas stoves.
(AP, 2/5/05)
1992-1993 Separatists in the northwestern province of
Abkhazia took over control by war. War be-tween Abkhaz forces and
Georgians killed 10,000 and left the Black Sea region as a de facto
independent but unrecognized state. In the siege of Sukhumi Abkhaz
rebels encircled the capi-tal of the region.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A10)(SFC, 5/26/98, p.A8)(WSJ,
11/18/06, p.P11)
1993 Mar 19, Georgia shot down a
Russian warplane over the separatist Abkhazia region, killing its pilot
and heightening tensions.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1993 Aug 8, Freddie Woodruff
(b.1947), CIA agent chief in Tbilisi, Georgia, was shot and killed
during an outing with friends. Georgian authorities charged Anzor
Sharmaidze (20), a vol-unteer soldier, with the murder. Sharmaidze
confessed under torture and later said he was framed for the murder. In
2008 Sharmaidze was granted parole from prison.
(WSJ, 10/18/08,
p.A1)(http://public.cq.com/docs/hs/hsnews110-000002604568.html)(WSJ,
10/27/08, p.a12)
1993 Dec 31, Former Georgian
President Zviad Gamsakhurdia (b.1939) died on New Year’s Eve. He had
returned to lead an uprising in western Georgia, but the fighting was
quickly put down and Gamsakhurdia was surrounded. His body was then
taken to Chechnya. In 2007 His body was returned for burial in Georgia.
(AP, 3/28/07)
1993 Georgia became a member of
Russia's Commonwealth of Independent States; Russia, in return, backed
Shevardnadze against Abkhaz rebels.
(http: ICL)
1994 Nov, Abkhazia declared
independence from Georgia and set up its own government. No other
country gave recognition. Residents of the area numbered about 200,000
and spoke their own language. Vladislav Ardzinba became president.
(SSFC, 9/24/06,
p.A20)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3261059.stm)
1994 Georgia reached a cease-fire
with Abkhazia.
(SFC, 11/24/03, p.A11)
1995 Aug 29, In Tbilisi, Georgia,
the motorcade of Eduard Shevardnadze was attacked as he left for the
ceremonial signing of the new constitution.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.A12)
1995 Eduard Shevardnadze was
elected president of Georgia for a 5-year term after the country
adopted a new constitution.
(SFC, 11/24/03, p.A11)
1996 Apr, Shevardnadze signed a
cooperation agreement with Azerbaijan and Armenia.
(http: ICL)
1996 Jul 19, Peacekeeping mandate
of Russia in the Abkhaz conflict was due to expire.
(http: ICL)
1996 Jul, After having secured a
new resolution of support from the United Nations Security Council,
Shevardnadze started talks to Abkhaz leader Vladislav Ardzinba.
(http: ICL)
1997 Jan 9, The government
informed the US that diplomat Georgui Makharadze would be recalled
following his involvement in a car crash that left a 16-year-old
Washington girl dead. Police evidence strongly suggested that he had
been drinking.
(SFC, 1/10/96, p.A2)
1997 Oct 8, Gueorgui Makharadze, a
diplomat from the Republic of Georgia, pleaded guilty in Washington to
charges stemming from a car crash that killed Maryland teen-ager
Jovianne Waltrick. Makharadze was sentenced to seven years in prison;
he initially served his term in a US prison, but was later transferred
to Georgia, where he was paroled in 2002.
(AP, 10/8/07)
1997 Former Soviet republics
(Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova) formed Guuam to
seek cooperation outside Russian influence.
(WSJ, 3/4/05, p.A13)
1997 Rocket-propelled grenades
slammed the armor-plated Mercedes of Pres. Shevardnadze and 2
bodyguards were killed.
(SFC, 8/31/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb 9, In Tbilisi armed
attackers ambushed Pres. Shevardnadze (70). One attacker and one
bodyguard were killed.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.A12)
1998 Feb 19, Gunmen kidnapped 4 UN
observers and 6 civilians and demanded the release of 7 suspects held
for last week’s assassination attempt on Pres. Shevardnadze.
(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 25, The UN prisoners were
freed and the leader of the kidnapping group escaped.
(WSJ, 2/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 21, It was reported that
the US and Britain have begun a secretive removal of nu-clear materials
near Tbilisi. Britain volunteered to accept the material.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A18)
1998 May 25, Fighting between
Abkhaz forces and Georgian irregulars raged inside a Rus-sian patrolled
buffer zone despite an agreed 1993 cease-fire. Georgia later claimed
that 100 people died and that 38,000 Georgians were driven from their
homes.
(SFC, 5/26/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/26/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
5/28/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 19, In Georgia an army
mutiny failed after 200 troops opposed to Pres. Shevard-nadze
surrendered. 4 rebels and one government soldier were killed.
(WSJ, 10/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 29, Five nations endorsed
the oil pipeline from the Caspian to the Mediterranean Sea. Turkey,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakstan and Uzbekistan committed to the 1,080
mile con-duit with a push from the US.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 24, In Tbilisi, Georgia,
gunmen killed Greek diplomat Anastasius Mizitrasos.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.A19)
1999 Oct 13, In Georgia gunmen
seized 6 UN observers and a translator as they delivered aid to
Abkhazia. 4 of the observers were released the next day and the ransom
was raised to $350,000. The last of the hostages were released 2 days
later.
(SFC, 10/14/99, p.A14)(SFC, 10/15/99, p.D3)(SFC,
10/16/99, p.A16)
1999 Nov 8, Pope John Paul II
stopped to "build new bridges" with the Orthodox Church and Patriarch
Ilia II. Separately Prime Minister Shevardnadze's party won the recent
parliamentary elections.
(SFC, 11/9/99, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/9/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 17, Azerbaijan, Georgia,
Turkey agreed to a US-backed plan for a Caspian oil pipe-line from Baku
to Ceyhan to be completed in 2004. The 1st shipment was made in 2006.
(SFC, 11/18/99, p.C6)(AFP, 6/4/06)
1999 Nov 23, An agreement between
Georgia and Russia was announced to cut the number of Russian forces
over the next few years.
(SFC, 11/24/99, p.C5)
2000 Apr 9, In Georgia Pres.
Eduard Shevardnadze won re-election with some 82% of the vote. Dzhumber
Patiashvili, ex-Communist leader, trailed with 17% and charged that
there was widespread vote rigging.
(SFC, 4/10/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 1, Abkhaz officials
reported that 5 members of a UN observer mission were missing.
(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 4, In Georgia three Red
Cross workers were believed to have been kidnapped. Their car was found
the next day near the border with Chechnya.
(SFC, 8/7/00, p.C16)(WSJ, 8/7/00, p.A1)
2001 May 25, In Georgia some 400
National Guard mutinied over improved living conditions at a base 25
miles northeast of Tbilisi.
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A10)
2001 Oct 8, In the Abkhazia region
of Georgia a UN helicopter was shot down and 9 people were killed.
(SFC, 10/9/01, p.B4)
2001 Oct 9, Abkhazia accused
Chechen and Georgian fighters of killing 14 villagers and mounting a
helicopter raid.
(WSJ, 10/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 30, In Tbilisi the state
security ministry sent 30 agents to the independent Rustavi 2 TV
station, ostensibly for a tax investigation. The director refused the
examination of financial files and put the standoff on the air which
prompted 5-10 thousand people to gather in protest. Security Minister
Vakhtang Kutateladze was later fired by Pres. Shevardnadze.
(SFC, 11/2/01, p.D2)
2001 Nov 1, In Georgia Pres.
Shevardnadze fired his government as demonstrators took to the streets
and demanded changes.
(SFC, 11/2/01, p.D2)
2001 Dec, Abandoned Soviet nuclear
batteries were found by woodsmen in the mountains of Abkhazia near
Dzhvari filled with strontium 90. Experts removed the devices Feb 5.
(SFC, 2/1/02, p.A14)(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A6)
2001 An expedition to the Krubera
cave in Voronja, Georgia, measured its depth at 5,610 feet, making it
the world's deepest known cave.
(NG, Feb, 04)
2002 Feb 26, It was reported that
the US has begun providing the former Soviet Republic of Georgia with
military aid to counter terrorist threats in the Pankisi Gorge region.
Some 100-200 US soldiers were included in the $64 million program to
begin in mid-March.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A8)(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A11)
2002 Mar 21, It was reported that
Georgian fighters expected to use their US training against
secessionists in Abkhazia, which was unofficially protected by Russia.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 12, Russia sent troops
into the Kodori gorge of Georgia to watch the Abkhazia bor-der. The
move was condemned by Georgian officials and troops were soon
withdrawn.
(SFC, 4/13/02, p.A11)(WSJ, 4/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 25, An earthquake in
Tbilisi, Georgia, killed at least 3 people.
(SFC, 4/26/02, p.A15)
2002 Apr 29, The 1st 20 of some
2000 US soldiers landed in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A14)
2002 May 19, A team of 50 US Green
Berets landed in Tbilisi for a 2-year training program for Georgia’s
army.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A14)
2002 May, Pres. Shevardnadze of
Georgia issued a decree ordering new measures to insure the rights of
worshippers. He denounced the last 3 years of violence against new
religions in-cluding Jehovah’s Witnesses. Only the Orthodox Church had
special status and tax exemption.
(SFC, 8/17/02, p.A8)
2002 Aug 23, Pres. Shevardnadze
accused Russia of bombing inside Georgia’s border. One person was
reported killed.
(SFC, 8/24/02, p.A7)
2002 Sep 11, In Russia Pres. Putin
threatened military strikes on Georgia to defend itself from terrorist
attacks.
(SFC, 9/12/02, p.A7)
2002 Sep 23, Georgia's president
sought to defuse an explosive war of words with Russia, offering to let
Moscow send unarmed military observers to the mountain valley where
Russia says terrorists are operating.
(AP, 9/23/02)
2002 Oct 22, It was reported that
special forces in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia had captured 15 Arab
militants linked to al Qaeda.
(SFC, 10/22/02, p.A7)
2002 Nov 3, Dzhumber Lezhava
returned to Tbilisi, Georgia, ending a nine-year trip around the world
by bicycle.
(AP, 11/3/02)
2003 Mar 24, In Georgia Pres.
Shevardnadze confirmed that the US was flying U-2 spy planes over the
Pankisi Gorge area to help fight Chechen rebel infiltration.
(WSJ, 3/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 18, All of Georgia was
without power for the entire day, and officials in the impover-ished
former Soviet republic were struggling to determine the cause of the
blackout.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Sep 19, The government of
Georgia scrapped an accord guaranteeing religious free-dom for
Catholics. The next day the Vatican issued an unusually strong rebuke
to the former Soviet republic and its dominant Orthodox Church.
(AP, 9/20/03)
2003 Nov 2, Georgia held
parliamentary elections and opinion polls said the opposition would
take control unless there was massive fraud. Parliamentary candidates
allied with Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze held a slim lead in
elections that European monitors said were marred by irregularities.
(SFC, 11/3/03, p.A3)(AP, 11/4/03)
2003 Nov 5, In Georgia opposition
parties protested for a 2nd day, accusing President Eduard
Shevardnadze's government of rigging the results of parliamentary
elections.
(AP, 11/5/03)
2003 Nov 22, Opposition supporters
broke into Georgia's Parliament and took it over, scuf-fling with
lawmakers and forcing President Eduard Shevardnadze to flee as
thousands of pro-testers outside demanded his resignation.
(AP, 11/22/03)
2003 Nov 23, Georgian President
Eduard Shevardnadze signed his resignation papers as leaders of
protesters already occupying parliament urged tens of thousands of
supporters to seize more organs of state power and some military units
defected to the jubilant protesters thronging the capital's streets.
Nino Burdzhanadze, leader of the United Democrats opposition, declared
herself acting president and announced a new election within 45 days.
(AP, 11/23/03)(SSFC, 11/23/03, p.A3)
2003 Nov 25, Georgian lawmakers
set a new presidential election for Jan 4. The foreign debt stood at
$1.8 billion, the unemployment rate was 30% and the average monthly
salary was $20.
(AP, 11/25/03)(SFC, 11/26/03, p.A13)
2003 Nov 26, In Georgia Mikhail
Saakashvili (35), a US educated lawyer, said he would run for president
as the sole candidate of the opposition National Movement party. His
campaign later became known as the “rose revolution.”
(SFC, 11/27/03, p.A9)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.16)
2003 Dec 10, Aslan Abashidze (65),
a former Soviet bureaucrat who has ruled the region of Adzharia since
Georgia's 1991 independence, refused to accept Georgia's interim
leadership or parliament.
(AP, 12/10/03)
2003 Dec 29, A Georgia rocket
attack damaged offices of an independent TV station.
(WSJ, 12/30/03, p.A1)
2004 Jan 4, The former Soviet
republic of Georgia voted for a successor to President Eduard
Shevardnadze. Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia's young firebrand opposition
leader, declared him-self the victor in presidential elections with
some 85% of the vote.
(AP, 1/5/04)(SFC, 1/5/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 8, Authorities in
Georgia's autonomous region of Adzharia imposed a state of emer-gency,
fearing the newly elected Georgian president may try to rein in the
province.
(AP, 1/8/04)
2004 Jan 18, In Georgia an
explosion at a scientific institute in Tbilisi killed two people and
injured two others. It occurred during a transfer of nitrogen, an
indication that a canister of the gas could have blown up.
(AP, 1/19/04)
2004 Jan 25, Mikhail Saakashvili
was inaugurated as Georgia's president.
(AP, 1/25/05)
2004 Feb 26, Mikhail Saakashvili,
the new president of Georgia, said he is ready to negotiate full
autonomy for the separatist Abkhazia region to end the decade-long
conflict.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Mar 14, Georgia's President
Mikhail Saakashvili put the country's military on alert after the
restive Adzharia region barred him from entering.
(AP, 3/14/04)
2004 Mar 15, Georgia's President
Mikhail Saakashvili put trade restrictions on Adzharia (Ajaria) after
Aslan Abashidze ignored a deadline to accept federal authority.
(AP, 3/14/04)
2004 Mar 18, Georgia's President
Mikhail Saakashvili met with Aslan Abashidze in Batumi, Ajaria, to
settle misunderstandings.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.54)
2004 Mar 19, Georgia's authorities
lifted sanctions against the defiant Adzharia (Ajaria) re-gion,
carrying out a new agreement aimed to avert tensions.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 28, Georgians voted in
the country's third election in less than six months. Support-ers of
President Mikhail Saakashvili swept to victory in Georgia's
parliamentary election, ac-cording to early results.
(AP, 3/28/04)(AP, 3/29/04)
2004 Apr 2, Georgian authorities
reported that they had detained four men on suspicion of plotting to
assassinate the president, and officials accused the autonomous
province of Adz-haria (Ajaria) of being behind the alleged plot.
(AP, 4/2/04)
2004 Apr 19, The annual
environmental Goldman Prizes were awarded in SF. Winners in-cluded
Manana Kochladze of Georgia for winning concessions to protect
villagers and a pristine gorge from an oil pipeline.
(SFC, 4/19/04, p.B5)
2004 May 2, Adzharian (Ajaria)
forces blew up the three major bridges connecting their recal-citrant
province with the rest of Georgia in what their leader said was a
preventive measure against Georgian military action.
(AP, 5/2/04)
2004 May 5, Russian foreign
minister Igor Ivanov helped ease Aslan Abashidze out of Adz-haria
(Ajaria), Georgia.
(Econ, 5/8/04, p.49)
2004 May 6, The leader of the
breakaway region of Adzharia fled after street protests, and Georgia's
president flew into the restive province, vowing to pursue the
integration of two other separatist regions.
(AP, 5/6/04)
2004 May, Georgia’s Pres.
Saakashvili asked Kakha Bendukidze (48), industrialist, to return to
Georgia from Russia and serve as the new economy minister. Bendukidze
returned in June and began work.
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.56)
2004 Aug 15, Sporadic gunfire and
shelling took place overnight in the disputed Georgian re-gion of South
Ossetia in violation of a fragile ceasefire, wounding seven Georgian
servicemen.
(AFP, 8/15/04)
2004 Aug 17, Georgian President
Mikhail Saakashvili appealed to world leaders to convene an
international conference on the conflict in breakaway South Ossetia,
where daily exchanges of gunfire threaten to spark a war. The province
operated as a conduit for smuggling between Georgia and Russia.
(AP, 8/17/04)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.40)
2004 Aug 18, In South Ossetia 3
Georgian peacekeepers were killed in overnight shooting.
(AP, 8/18/04)
2004 Dec 5, In Abkhazia (Georgia)
the two candidates vying for the region's presidency agreed to conduct
new elections and run on a joint ticket.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Irakly Okruashvili, Georgia’s
interior minister, sacked some 12,000 police officers as part of a
major anti-corruption drive.
(Econ, 9/18/04, p.56)
2004 Georgia’s Pres. Saakashvili
installed Levan Varshalomidze to replace Aslan Abashidze as head of the
Ajaria region.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.42)
2005 Feb 1, In Gori, Georgia, a
car bomb exploded outside a police station, killing three po-licemen
and injuring 13 other people.
(AP, 2/1/05)
2005 Feb 3, PM Zurab Zhvania, who
helped lead Georgia's revolution that toppled the corrup-tion-tainted
regime of Eduard Shevardnadze, died in a friend's apartment from what
officials claimed was an accidental gas leak from a heater.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 17, Georgia’s parliament
approved Zurab Nogaideli as premier.
(WSJ, 2/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 10, Georgia lawmakers
voted unanimously for Russia to withdraw troops from so-viet-era bases
by Jan 1.
(WSJ, 3/11/05, p.A1)
2005 May 9, In Tbilisi Pres. Bush,
before a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of people, said that the
former Soviet republic of Georgia is proving to the world that
determined people can rise up and claim their freedom from oppressive
rulers.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 10, Cheered by tens of
thousands in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Presi-dent Bush
urged the spread of democracy across the former communist world and
beyond.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2005 May 25, In Azerbaijan
officials opened the first section of a $3.6 billion, 1,100-mile
pipe-line that will carry Caspian Sea oil to Western markets. The
presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakh-stan, Georgia and Turkey were on hand
for the ceremony at the Sangachal oil terminal.
(AP, 5/25/05)(WSJ, 5/25/05, p.B2)
2005 May 30, Russia agreed to
begin withdrawing its troops from two Soviet-era bases in Georgia this
year, resolving one of the most serious disputes between Moscow and its
pro-Western neighbor.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 Aug 2, Georgia’s Pres,
Saakashvili said he is counting on US help to facedown Moscow and
reassert control over Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia.
(WSJ, 8/2/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 12, Leaders of Georgia
and Ukraine called for an alliance that would champion de-mocracy in
the former Soviet lands.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Sep 10, More than 500
U.S.-trained Georgian soldiers left for Iraq as part of a regular
rotation of troops by the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 9/10/05)
2005 Nov 23, Georgian President
Mikhail Saakashvili predicted his country will become a member of the
Western military alliance NATO by 2009.
(Reuters, 11/24/05)
2006 Jan 11, In Georgia a court
convicted a man of trying to assassinate President Bush and the leader
of Georgia during a rally last year, and it sentenced him to life in
prison. Vladimir Arutyunian (27) also was convicted of killing a
policeman during a shootout while authorities were trying to arrest him
several weeks after the May 10, 2005, grenade incident.
(AP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 22, Explosions hit
pipelines running through southern Russia, cutting the natural gas
supply to Georgia and Armenia during a cold snap.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, Georgia began
receiving natural gas late in the day from Azerbaijan following
explosions on pipelines in southern Russia that cut off delivery of gas
to Georgia and its neighbor Armenia during a cold snap.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 24, Georgia’s energy
minister said Iran has expressed a readiness to export natural gas to
Georgia to make up for a sharp drop in Russian deliveries.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 27, Georgia's president
said that Iran had agreed to start providing emergency gas supplies to
the Caucasus mountain nation as early as this weekend, signaling an end
to an en-ergy crisis made worse by an extreme cold snap.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 29, Russia resumed
sending natural gas to Georgia after finishing repairs to a major
pipeline damaged by mysterious blasts a week earlier.
(AP, 1/29/06)
2006 Mar 9, About 8,000 Georgians
took to the streets for the capital's biggest anti-government
demonstration since President Mikhail Saakashvili was swept to power
after lead-ing the Rose Revolution protests more than two years ago.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 26, Georgian police
stormed a prison in Tbilisi after inmates rioted in an escape at-tempt
from Ortochala prison, sparking a gun battle that left two guards and
an unknown number of inmates dead.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Apr 6, It was reported that
Russian health and sanitary officials had imposed a ban on Georgian and
Moldovan wines effective May 1. Authorities said the wines contained
pesticides and heavy metals. The ban was soon extended to brandy and
sparkling wines.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 May 28, A new $4 billion
pipeline from Baku, via Georgia to Ceyhan, Turkey, began pumping oil.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.48)
2006 Jun 3, The long-awaited first
shipment of Caspian oil from the new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline
got on its way from a Turkish port.
(AFP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jul 5, Pres. Bush met with
Pres. Saakashvili and backed Georgia’s bid to join NATO.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 6, Four former officers
in Georgia's Interior Ministry were convicted of causing bodily harm
leading to death in the case of a banker, Sandro Girgvliani (28), whose
beating and stab-bing death became a political scandal in this former
Soviet republic.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 13, The presidents of
Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia formally opened a pipeline designed to
bypass Russia and bring Caspian oil to Europe, a route that President
Bush said would bolster global energy security.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 26, Georgian authorities
reported sporadic fighting in a mountainous region where police are
trying to subdue a defiant militia leader, the latest confrontation in
a volatile former Soviet republic plagued by separatist movements.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 27, Georgia’s Pres.
Saakashvili said his troops had established control over the Kodori
Gorge area after Emzar Kvitsiani, a former presidential envoy, said he
was reactivating a local militia.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 10, Rights activists said
at least nine inmates have died in Georgian prisons in the past 10 days
as the Caucasus Mountains nation suffers through high temperatures not
seen in two decades.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Sep 11, Leaders of the
breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia said they would hold a
referendum on independence in November, a move likely to infuriate the
government in Tbilisi and stoke already spiraling tensions.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 29, Georgia charged four
Russian military officers with spying, while Russian gov-ernment planes
evacuated dozens of diplomats and their relatives as the diplomatic
dispute worsened between Moscow and the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Sep 30, Russia said that it
has suspended plans for further withdrawal of its troops from Georgia
amid worsening relations between the two neighbors.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Oct 2, Georgia released four
Russian officers whose arrest on spying charges prompted Moscow to
announce sweeping travel and communications sanctions in the worst
bilateral crisis in years.
(AP, 10/2/06)
2006 Oct 3, Russia suspended all
transport and postal links with Georgia until further notice, sharply
escalating their dispute. The blockade caused economic problems for
Armenia, Geor-gia's landlocked southern neighbor, since Russia is its
main trading partner.
(AP, 10/3/06)(AP, 10/7/06)
2006 Oct 5, Georgians voted in
municipal elections seen as a crucial test for President Mikhail
Saakashvili during a diplomatic crisis with Russia.
(AP, 10/5/06)
2006 Oct 5, Russia froze
Georgians’ work permits and nearly doubled its gas bill.
(WSJ, 10/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 6, Opposition leaders
alleged that Georgia's local and regional elections were rid-dled with
fraud, but international monitors said the balloting was conducted
"with general re-spect for fundamental freedoms."
(AP, 10/6/06)
2006 Oct 12, Georgia blocked the
next round of talks on Russia's bid to join the World Trade
Organization in retaliation for Moscow's blockade of its small southern
neighbor.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 24, Georgia's Foreign
Ministry said it had protested to the UN about Russia's crack-down on
illegal Georgian migrants, demanding a stop to what it called
"persecution on ethnic grounds."
(AP, 10/24/06)
2006 Oct 26, A Georgian man was
killed and another was wounded when they stepped on a mine in a
volatile area near the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Nov 2, Russia's
state-controlled natural gas monopoly said that it would more than
dou-ble the price it charges Georgia, further heightening tensions
between the ex-Soviet neighbors.
(AP, 11/2/06)
2006 Nov 12, Voters in the
breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia declared over-whelming
backing for its independence drive in a referendum that underlined a
sharp split be-tween Russia and the West and is likely to increase
tensions in the Caucasus region. A similar 1992 referendum proclaiming
the province's independence went unnoticed by the international
community, leaving it in limbo.
(AP, 11/12/06)(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Dec 14, In Georgia the last
train carrying military hardware and property owned by units of the
Group of Russian Troops left the Tbilisi garrison for Armenia. The last
of Russia’s ser-vicemen were to leave the next day. This ended a
200-year-old Russian presence in Tbilisi.
(www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11647105)
2006 Dec 22, A top executive with
Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom said Georgia will pay more than double
what it pays now for Russian natural gas under a new agreement.
(AP, 12/22/06)
2006 Thomas Goltz authored
“Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the
Post-Soviet Caucasus.”
(WSJ, 11/18/06, p.P11)
2006 A Georgian undercover agent
made contact with a Russian seller of uranium in North Ossetia. The
seller was arrested when they met in Tbilisi with 3.5 ounces of
enriched uranium, which made it weapons grade material.
(SFC, 1/25/07, p.A18)
2007 Jan 18, President Vladimir
Putin ordered Russia's ambassador to Georgia to return to the Georgian
capital after recalling him four months ago, saying that the two
countries must "normalize" badly strained ties.
(AP, 1/18/07)
2007 Feb 7, Georgia signed a
regional cooperation agreement with Azerbaijan and Turkey which
included plans for a railway connecting the three countries.
(WSJ, 2/28/07, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/2gbbgg)
2007 Mar 5, Badri
Patarkatsishvili, one of the most famous Georgian oligarchs, left
Georgia. His departure was announced in London as the relocation of his
activities of "Georgia in the West," underscoring the desire to leave
the country definitively. The millionaire, who holds first-rank
influence in both finances and the media, co-holds one of the most
important Georgian media concerns, Imedi, which includes a radio
station and a television station.
(www.caucaz.com/home_eng/breve_contenu.php?id=307)
2007 Mar 11, In Georgia’s Kodori
Valley Russian helicopters coordinated a ground and air attack on 3
settlements and fired a guided missile at a Georgian government
building.
(WSJ, 1/5/07, p.A8)
2007 Apr, Georgia reported that
outbreaks of African swine fever began at the end of April in 10
regions across the country. 20,000 pigs were soon slaughtered. In June
the UN said that the outbreak could have a "catastrophic" economic
impact unless its spread is halted.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 May 11, Authorities in
Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia launched a block-ade of all
ethnic Georgian villages in the province and demanded that the central
government withdraw its police troops from the settlements.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 20, Guram Sharadze (67),
the leader of a Georgian opposition movement, was gunned down on a
street in a central part of the capital, Tbilisi.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 Jun 19, Georgia border agents
blocked a car trying to smuggle radioactive plutonium and beryllium
from Azerbaijan.
(WSJ, 6/20/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 28, Hundreds of ethnic
Georgians confronted Russian peacekeeping forces in the breakaway
region of South Ossetia, throwing paint and gasoline on the troops and
forcing them to stop blocking a road project.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Aug 7, Georgia accused Russia
of "undisguised aggression," saying two Russian fighter jets intruded
on its airspace and fired a missile that landed near a house. Russia
denied the al-legation.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 24, Georgia said it fired
on a Russian plane flying over its territory. The Tbilisi City Court,
behind closed doors, convicted 13 people from minor opposition parties
for plotting a vio-lent overthrow of the government. Maia Topuria, the
lead defendant and head of the pro-Moscow Justice party, was sentenced
to 8 ½ years in prison.
(WSJ, 8/25/07,
p.A1)(www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=6353)
2007 Aug 25, A senior official of
the separatist region said a plane of uncertain origin went down over
Abkhazia, a day after Georgia reported that its forces fired on a plane
believed to be Russian that had violated the country's airspace.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Sep 14, Georgia’s defense
minister said Georgia will cut the size of its military contin-gent in
Iraq from 2,000 soldiers and other personnel to around 300 by next
summer.
(AP, 9/14/07)
2007 Sep 20, A clash between
Georgian and separatist Abkhazian forces too place some 330 yards
inside Abkhaz-held territory. Several Abkhaz soldiers were wounded and
2 former Rus-sian military officers were killed.
(SFC, 10/30/07, p.A6)
2007 Sep 27, Irakli Okruashvili,
Georgia's hawkish former defense minister, was detained on corruption
charges, days after he alleged that President Mikhail Saakashvili had
ordered him to kill a prominent businessman.
(AP, 9/27/07)
2007 Sep 28, Thousands of
opposition supporters rallied in Georgia's capital, demanding that the
president step down following the arrest of Irakly Okruashvili (33), a
former defense minister who accused the leader of involvement in a
murder plot.
(AP, 9/28/07)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.58)
2007 Oct 7, Irakly Okruashvili,
Georgia's former defense minister, retracted allegations that the
president of this former Soviet republic was involved in a murder plot
and other corruption. Okruashvili's lawyer, Eka Beselia, said the
statements "were made under duress."
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 10, Ministers from
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine signed a deal to
build an oil pipeline linking the Black and Baltic seas.
(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.A18)
2007 Oct 15, The Security Council
voted unanimously to extend the UN observer mission in Georgia,
expressing "serious concern" at violence that has escalated tensions
between Georgia and the breakaway region of Abkhazia.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Nov 7, In Georgia police
forced dozens of opposition supporters from a site in Tbilisi, where
five days of protests had drawn thousands, but demonstrators later
returned and re-newed their calls for the president's resignation.
Georgia’s Imedi television station, regarded by the government as an
opposition mouthpiece, went off the air after riot police entered its
head-quarters. Imedi was owned by opposition tycoon Badri
Patarkatsishvili. The government de-clared a 15-day state of emergency.
(AP, 11/7/07)(AP, 11/8/07)(Econ, 11/10/07,
p.66)(Econ, 1/12/08, p.41)
2007 Nov 8, Georgia's pro-Western
Pres. Mikhail Saakashvili said that the country would hold early
presidential elections in January to defuse a crisis fueled by protests
against him. Troops armed with hard rubber clubs patrolled the center
of Tbilisi to enforce a state of emergency im-posed after a violent
crackdown on anti-government protesters.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 9, Georgian opposition
leaders said they would end streets protests against Presi-dent Mikhail
Saakashvili after he called for an early presidential election for
January.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 15, Georgia’s parliament
lifted the country’s state of emergency imposed last week by Pres.
Saakashvili.
(WSJ, 11/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 15, A top Russian general
said that Russia has completed its withdrawal of troops that had been
based in Georgia since the Soviet collapse. He said peacekeepers
remained in Abkhazia along with forces in South Ossetia with the
participation of Georgia.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 16, Georgia’s President
Mikhail Saakashvili dismissed the prime minister and nomi-nated an
influential banker for the post in an apparent attempt to win votes
ahead of a hastily called presidential election.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 21, The presidents of
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey launched the construction of a railroad
that will link ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia
with Europe, by-passing Russia.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Dec 26, Georgia's top
television station suspended its broadcasts, saying it was protest-ing
the pressure authorities have exerted because of the station's links to
a billionaire presiden-tial contender challenging the government.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2008 Jan 5, Georgians voted to
determine whether to keep Mikhail Saakashvili as president in the
former Soviet republic, where he was once considered a symbol of
democratic reform but now faces accusations of authoritarian leanings.
Saakashvili's supporters poured onto the streets, tooting car horns and
waving white-and-red national flags, celebrating victory based on exit
poll results. Saakashvili received 52.8% of the vote according to
preliminary results.
(AP, 1/5/08)(AP, 1/6/08)(AP, 1/7/08)
2008 Jan 6, In Georgia several
thousand people rallied in Tbilisi, claiming early election re-sults
that indicated Mikhail Saakashvili would narrowly win a second
presidential term were fraudulent.
(AP, 1/6/08)
2008 Jan 7, President Mikhail
Saakashvili said his re-election demonstrates that Georgia is on the
road to becoming a European democracy, while his opponents denounced
the vote as fraudulent and vowed to renew street protests.
(AP, 1/7/08)
2008 Jan 10, In Georgia
authorities formally charged Badri Patarkatsishvili, a billionaire
busi-nessman, who ran in this month's presidential election with
plotting to overthrow the govern-ment. Patarkatsishvili left Georgia in
November and has spent time in Britain and Israel. He has acknowledged
offering large sums of money to police if they side with protesters.
(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Georgia tens of
thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Tbilisi to protest what
they denounced as massive vote fraud that helped US-allied Mikhail
Saakashvili win a second presidential term.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 15, In Georgia tens of
thousands of people demonstrated in Tbilisi, pressing for a
presidential runoff but celebrating an agreement giving the opposition
more control over the main state-funded television station.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Feb 12, Badri
Patarkatsishvili (52), a Georgian tycoon, was found dead in his mansion
near London. Police said they were treating the death as suspicious. He
had claimed he was the target of assassination plot after helping lead
anti-government protests in his homeland. He had built his fortune in
Russia, where he became Berezovsky's business partner. However, the two
men claimed in British court documents that the Russian government
forced them to sell their stakes in oil company Sibneft, Russian
Aluminum and television channel ORT for a frac-tion of their value.
Interim tests indicated that Patarkatsishvili died of natural causes.
(AP, 2/13/08)(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Mar 5, South Ossetia appealed
for international recognition as an independent nation, further adding
to simmering tensions in Georgia and throughout the strategic South
Caucasus region.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 6, A lawmaker said
Abkhazia, a region that broke away from Georgian government control in
the 1990s, intends to seek international recognition as an independent
nation, citing Kosovo as a precedent.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 25, Air travel between
Georgia and Russia resumed, more than 17 months after Moscow suspended
flights because of tension between the ex-Soviet neighbors.
(AP, 3/25/08)
2008 Apr 3, President Bush won
NATO's endorsement for his plan to build a missile defense system in
Europe over Russian objections. The proposal also advanced with Czech
officials announcing an agreement to install a missile tracking site
for the system in their country. NATO decided not to put Georgia and
Ukraine on track to join the alliance after vehement Russian
opposition, but the alliance pledged that the strategically important
Black Sea nations will be-come members one day.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 20, A Georgian unmanned
reconnaissance flight was shot down over the Georgian rebel region of
Abkhazia. The next day Georgia's air force commander said a Russian
fighter jet shot down the spy plane as it flew over Abkhazia, but
Russia said it had been shot down by separatist forces and that the
flight violated UN ceasefire agreements. A UN report on May 26 said a
Russian jet shot down the spy drone.
(Reuters, 4/22/08)(AP, 4/22/08)(SFC, 5/27/08, p.A12)
2008 Apr 29, Russia announced it
was beefing up its peacekeeping force in Georgia's break-away Abkhazia
and South Ossetia regions, saying it had evidence Tbilisi was readying
its forces for an attack.
(Reuters, 4/29/08)
2008 May 1, Russia said an extra
contingent of its troops had begun arriving in Georgia's breakaway
region of Abkhazia, a move Tbilisi said was an illegal act of military
aggression.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 4, Abkhazian
anti-aircraft forces shot down 2 unmanned Georgian spy planes. A
Georgian Foreign Ministry official, dismissed the claims as "completely
absurd disinformation" aimed at increasing tension in the area.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 8, Georgia's breakaway
region of Abkhazia said it had shot down another Georgian spy drone.
(Reuters, 5/8/08)
2008 May 21, Georgia held
parliamentary elections.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Partial returns and
an exit poll showed President Mikhail Saakashvili's ruling party
heading for a strong majority in Georgia's parliamentary election.
United Opposition co-leader David Gamkrelidze alleged widespread
cheating and pressure on opponents by authori-ties in areas outside
Tbilisi.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May, Georgia’s population, as
it aspired to NATO membership, was about 4.5 million.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.70)
2008 Jun 5, The European
Parliament called for the peacekeeping mandate for Russian troops in
the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia to be revised. The chamber
also de-manded the EU sends its own border mission into the conflict
zone in Abkhazia.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 6, Russia's new Pres.
Medvedev met with leaders of a fractious alliance of ex-Soviet
republics, warning Ukraine and Georgia not to lead their countries into
NATO.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Aug 2, Overnight fighting
that included sniper and mortar fire between Georgian forces and
separatists in the breakaway South Ossetia region left six people dead
and 13 wounded.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 3, The breakaway republic
of South Ossetia began sending hundreds of children across the border
to its Russian ally amid increasing violence between the republic and
Geor-gian government forces.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 7, Heavy shelling
overnight in the Georgian breakaway province of South Ossetia wounded
at least 21 people. Cyber attacks from Russia began to target Georgian
government Web sites. An organization known as the Russian Business
Network was the leading suspect in the attacks. Georgia’s Pres.
Saakashvili ordered the shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of South
Ossetia.
(AP, 8/7/08)(WSJ, 8/12/08, p.A9)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.49)
2008 Aug 8, Georgian troops
launched a major military offensive to regain control of South Ossetia,
prompting a furious response from Russia, which sent tanks into the
region. The con-voy was expected to reach the provincial capital by
evening. Georgia said it shot down two Russian combat planes.
Separatist officials in South Ossetia said 15 civilians had been killed
in fighting overnight. Georgia later acknowledged that it used M85
cluster munition near the Roki tunnel that connects South Ossetia with
Russia, while Russia denied use of cluster bombs.
(AP, 8/8/08)(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 9, Georgia, the third
largest contributor to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, said it's
pull-ing out its 2,000-strong contingent from Iraq to join the fighting
in the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, Separatist forces in
Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia launched air and artillery
strikes to drive Georgian troops from their bridgehead in the region.
The Abkhazian move was prompted by Georgia's military action to regain
control over another breakaway prov-ince, South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, Russia sent hundreds
of tanks and troops into the separatist province of South Ossetia and
bombed Georgian towns in a major escalation of the conflict that has
left scores of civilians dead and wounded. Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that some 1,500 people have been
killed, with the death toll rising. The death toll in South Os-setia
was later put at fewer than 200. Russian military aircraft bombed the
Georgian town of Gori. Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili proposed
a cease-fire. As part of his proposal, Georgian troops were pulled out
of Tskhinvali and had been ordered to stop responding to Rus-sian
shelling.
(AP, 8/9/08)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.49)
2008 Aug 10, Georgian troops
retreated from the breakaway province of South Ossetia and their
government pressed for a truce, overwhelmed by Russian firepower as the
conflict threat-ened to set off a wider war. Georgia said it has shot
down 10 Russian planes, including four brought down Aug 9. It also
claimed to have captured two Russian pilots, who were shown on Georgian
television. Ukraine warned Russia it could bar Russian navy ships from
returning to their base in the Crimea because of their deployment to
Georgia's coast.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 11, Swarms of Russian
jets launched new raids on Georgian territory and Georgia faced the
threat of a second front of fighting as Russia demanded that Georgia
disarm troops near the breakaway province of Abkhazia.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 12, Georgia's Pres.
Mikhail Saakashvili said his government will declare that its breakaway
regions are occupied territories and will designate Russian
peacekeepers as occu-pying forces. Russia ordered a halt to military
action in Georgia, after five days of air and land attacks sent
Georgia's army into headlong retreat and left towns and military bases
destroyed. More than 2,000 people were reported killed. A Dutch
television journalist was killed overnight when Russian warplanes
bombed the central Georgian city of Gori. Russia later counted 133
civilian deaths in South Ossetia. Rights activists later said fewer
than 100 civilians were killed in South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/12/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.43)(WSJ, 9/12/08,
p.A1)
2008 Aug 13, Russian tanks rolled
into the crossroads city of Gori then thrust deep into Geor-gian
territory, violating the truce designed to end the six-day war. Georgia
said that 175 Georgi-ans had died in five days of air and ground
attacks that left homes in smoldering ruins. EU for-eign ministers
agreed in principle to send monitors to supervise a French-brokered
ceasefire between Russia and Georgia in the breakaway Georgian region
of South Ossetia. Finance Min-ister Alexei Kudrin said Russia will
spend at least $400 million in 2008 on restoring South Os-setia's
battered capital Tskhinvali.
(AP, 8/13/08)(Reuters, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 14, Georgian and Russian
troops faced off at a checkpoint outside the key city of Gori, calling
an already shaky cease-fire into question. An American official said
Russia ap-pears to be sabotaging airfields and other military
infrastructure as its forces pull back. The Russian General
Prosecutor's office said it has formally opened a genocide probe into
Geor-gian treatment of South Ossetians. For its part, Georgia this week
filed a suit against Russia in the International Court of Justice,
alleging murder, rape and mass expulsions in both provinces.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 15, Russian troops
allowed some humanitarian supplies into Georgia’s city of Gori but kept
up their blockade of the strategically located city, raising doubts
about Russia's inten-tions. Relief planes swooped into Tbilisi with
tons of supplies for the estimated 100,000 people uprooted by the
fighting. An international rights group said it has evidence that
Russian war-planes dropped cluster bombs in civilian areas in Georgia.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 16, Russian forces pulled
back from the center of a town not far from Georgia's capital after
Russia's president signed a cease-fire deal. Russia’s Foreign Minister
Sergey Lav-rov later suggested there would be no immediate broader
withdrawal. Georgia's Foreign Minis-try said Saturday that
Russian-backed separatists from the province of Abkhazia had taken over
13 villages in Georgia and a power plant. Russian troops blew up a key
railroad bridge linking the Caucasus to the Black Sea coast.
(AP, 8/16/08)(SSFC, 8/17/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 17, The Kremlin promised
to start withdrawing combat troops from Georgia on Au-gust 18, as
Western pressure mounted on Russia to quit the ex-Soviet republic.
(AFP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 18, Russia said its
military began to withdraw from the conflict zone in Georgia, but left
unclear exactly where troops and tanks will operate under the
cease-fire that ended days of fighting in the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 19, Russian soldiers took
20 Georgian troops prisoner at a key port in western Georgia and
commandeered American Humvees awaiting shipment back to the United
States after taking part in earlier US-Georgian military exercises.
Georgia and Russia exchanged pris-oners captured during their brief war.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 20, A top Russian general
said 64 of the country's soldiers were killed and 323 wounded in this
month's fighting with Georgia. Russia informed Norway that it plans to
suspend all military ties with NATO, a day after the military alliance
urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from Georgia. Georgia later
reported that 170 of its soldiers were killed in the war.
(AP, 8/20/08)(AP, 8/21/08)(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 21, Russian forces
blocked the only land entrance to Georgia's main port city, a day
before Russia promised to complete a troop pullout from its ex-Soviet
neighbor.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 22, A Russian armored
column moved away from a base in western Georgia and Russian forces
also were leaving the key central city of Gori, the day that Russia's
president had said a pullback would be complete.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 23, A top Russian general
said his country's forces will keep patrolling the key Georgian Black
Sea port of Poti even though it lies outside the areas where Russia
claims it has the right to station soldiers in Georgia.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 24, The USS McFaul, a US
Navy warship carrying humanitarian aid, anchored at the Georgian port
of Batumi, sending a strong signal of support to an embattled ally as
Russian forces built up around two separatist regions. In central
Georgia, an oil train exploded and caught fire, sending plumes of black
smoke into the air. A Georgian official said the train hit a land mine
and blamed the explosion on departing Russian forces.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 25, Russia's parliament
voted unanimously to urge the president to recognize the independence
of Georgia's two breakaway regions, a move likely to stoke further
tensions be-tween Moscow and the small Caucasus nation's Western
allies. Russian President Dmitry Med-vedev warned ex-Soviet Moldova
against repeating Georgia's mistake of trying to use force to seize
back control of Transdniestria, a pro-Moscow breakaway region.
(AP, 8/25/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 26, Russia formally
recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the breakaway Geor-gian
territories at the heart of its war with Georgia, heightening tensions
with the West as the US dispatched a military ship bearing aid to a
port city still patrolled by Russian troops. In a di-rect challenge to
Russia, the US announced it intends to deliver humanitarian aid to the
belea-guered Georgian port city of Poti, which Russian troops still
control through checkpoints on the city's outskirts.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 27, A US military ship
docked at the southern Georgian port of Batumi. Meanwhile, Russia's
missile cruiser, the Aurora, and two missile boats, anchored at the
port of Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia. The moves by both sides
underscored an escalating standoff between Moscow and the West over
this small Caucasus nation devastated by war with Russia.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, The Group of Seven
(G7) industrialized democracies condemned Russia for its actions in
Georgia, underlining the country's growing estrangement from the West.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, Russian forces turned
over 12 Georgian soldiers on the border of Abkhazia. Georgia's foreign
minister said ethnic Georgians were being cleared from their homes in
South Ossetia. A joint declaration from the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization denounced the use of force and called for respect for
every country's territorial integrity. Mikhail Mindzayev, the inte-rior
minister of South Ossetia, said an unmanned Georgian spy plane was shot
down over South Ossetia by local forces.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 29, A Georgian Foreign
Ministry official says Georgia is to recall all diplomatic staff from
its embassy in Moscow because of the Russian military presence in
Georgia.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 30, The UN says Russian
soldiers are telling thousands of refugees in Georgia who want to
return to their homes that their security can't be guaranteed. All
hoped to return to vil-lages that are in the "security zones" that
Russia has claimed for itself. Russian PM Vladimir Putin urged the EU
to ignore calls to punish Moscow over the Georgia conflict as Tbilisi
ap-pealed for targeted punishment of the Russian leadership.
(AP, 8/30/08)(AFP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 31, President Dmitry
Medvedev says Russia will follow the recognition of Georgia's breakaway
provinces with agreements on economic and military aid.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Sep 1, Hundreds of thousands
of Georgians joined together in anti-Russian protests.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.32)
2008 Sep 3, A US Navy ship loaded
with humanitarian aid steamed through the Dardanelles on its way to
Georgia, as the Bush administration prepared to roll out a $1 billion
economic aid package for the ex-Soviet republic.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 4, In Georgia US Vice
President Dick Cheney condemned Russia for what he called an
"illegitimate, unilateral attempt" to redraw this US ally's borders by
force.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 5, The flagship of the US
Navy's Mediterranean fleet anchored outside the key Georgian port of
Poti, bringing in tons of humanitarian aid to a port still partially
occupied by hundreds of Russian troops.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, EU nations called for
an international probe to find out which country should shoulder
responsibility for starting the conflict between Georgia and Russia.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 7, Italy's foreign
minister, after meeting US Vice President Dick Cheney, said the EU
wants to work closely with the United States in resolving the Georgian
crisis.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 8, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy pressed Moscow to honor its pledge to with-draw troops
from Georgia, while Russian soldiers prevented international aid
convoys from visit-ing Georgian villages in a tense zone around the
breakaway province of South Ossetia. Pres. Medvedev and Sarkozy revised
the EU-brokered deal to end the fighting between Russia and Georgia.
Medvedev said 200 EU monitors would deploy to regions surrounding South
Ossetia and Abkhazia by next month. After that, Russian troops would
pull out of those regions by Oct. 11 to a line that preceded last
month's fighting.
(AP, 9/8/08)(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, Russia said it will
station 7,600 troops in South Ossetia and in Abkhazia, an-nouncing an
imposing long-term presence less than a day after agreeing to pull
forces back from areas surrounding the provinces.
(AP, 9/9/08)(WSJ, 9/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 10, A Georgian police
officer was killed by gunfire that came from the direction of a Russian
checkpoint near separatist South Ossetia.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, Israeli defense
officials say the government has told all businessmen involved in
military sales to Georgia to immediately cease visits to the former
Soviet republic. The officials said the directive was decided upon this
week because Israel is concerned about damage to its relations with
Russia.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 13, Hundreds of Russian
forces packed up and withdrew from positions in western Georgia. A
Georgian official said Russia had met a deadline for a partial pullout
a month after the war between the two former Soviet republics. A
Georgian policeman at a post near Abkhazia was killed by gunfire that
came from the direction of a position where Abkhazian and Russian
forces have been based. Some 1,200 Russian servicemen still remained at
19 check-points and other positions, 12 outside South Ossetia and seven
outside Abkhazia.
(AP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 16, Georgia’s government
said intercepted mobile phone calls show that Russian tanks and troops
invaded before Georgia unleashed its offensive against South Ossetia,
press-ing its claim that Russia was the aggressor in the war last month.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 17, Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev signed friendship treaties with Georgia's breakaway
regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and promised them the backing of
Russia's armed forces.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 22, Georgian forces shot
down a Russian drone near the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
(AP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 29, In Georgia almost 300
monitors from 22 EU nations were in place to oversee Russia's promised
troop withdrawal from the large swaths it has occupied since the August
war.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Oct 1, EU monitors began
patrolling Georgian territory and Russian troops allowed some of them
into a buffer zone around the breakaway region of South Ossetia despite
earlier warnings from Moscow they would be blocked.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 3, A car exploded outside
the Russian military's headquarters in South Ossetia, kill-ing 7 people
and wounding 3. The South Ossetian government said a car, that had been
con-fiscated in an ethnic Georgian village after weapons were found in
it, exploded near a building where leaders of the Russian peacekeeping
force were located.
(AP,
10/3/08)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432172,00.html)
2008 Oct 5, A Georgian Interior
Ministry official said Russian troops have begun dismantling positions
in the so-called security zones inside Georgia that they have occupied
since August's brief but intense war.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 8, Russian forces pulled
back from positions outside South Ossetia, bulldozing a camp at a key
checkpoint and withdrawing into the separatist region as EU monitors
and re-lieved Georgian residents looked on.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 22, Officials said the
EU, the US and other international donors have pledged more than $4.5
billion for rebuilding parts of Georgia that were damaged in its war
with Russia.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 25, In Georgia an
explosion killed Gia Mebonia, mayor of the small town of Mujhava, while
he was inspecting a house damaged by overnight shelling near the
separatist region of Abkhazia. A villager was also killed and a local
police officer was seriously injured.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 27, Georgia's Pres.
Saakashvili dismissed PM Vladimir Gurgenizde and recom-mended Grigol
Mgaloblishvili (35), the country's ambassador to Turkey, as his
replacement. Saakashvili said Gurgenizde would now head a government
finance commission.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 29, Russia's parliament
quickly ratified treaties cementing close economic and mili-tary ties
with Georgia's two breakaway provinces.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Nov 4, Human Rights Watch
reported that both Georgia and Russia used cluster bombs during their
brief summer war. Georgia’s bombs, purchased from Israel, killed at
least 3 Geor-gian civilians, including 2 who touched unexploded bombs
and died after the fighting ended. Many of the bombs were said to have
malfunctioned.
(WSJ, 11/4/08, p.A12)
2008 Nov 7, In Georgia thousands
of the United Opposition coalition demonstrated in the first major
protest against President Mikhail Saakashvili since the August war with
Russia. At least two significant opposition parties, The Republican
Party and the Christian Democrats, stayed away from the protest, citing
the need for postwar unity against Russia.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 10, An explosion killed
two Georgian police officers near the disputed region of South Ossetia.
EU monitors called the attack an unacceptable breach of the cease-fire
that ended the Georgia-Russia war.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 15, A Georgian policeman
was shot dead by a group of armed Abkhazians. The group was said to
have entered Georgian-controlled territory to plant land mines.
Abkhazian presidential envoy Ruslan Kishmariya said police from the
separatist side killed one and wounded two Georgian "saboteurs" in the
tense Gali district.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 19, Georgia and Russia
held their first major, mediated talks since their August war.
(WSJ, 11/20/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 20, Georgian officials
said Russian and separatist forces attacked a Georgian po-lice
checkpoint near the village of Ganmukhuri, near the breakaway province
of Abkhazia. Ana-toly Zaitsev, the chief of staff for the Abkhaz armed
forces, said that a group of Abkhaz troops patrolling the area were
shelled from the Georgian side and returned fire, and no Russian troops
were involved.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 23, In Georgia gunfire
that broke out as Pres. Saakashvili and Polish Pres. Lech Kaczynski
were traveling near a roadblock at the edge of Georgia-controlled
territory. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there was no
gunfire from Russian or South Ossetian posi-tions and suggested Georgia
engineered the incident to discredit Russia and South Ossetia. In
Tbilisi Nino Burjanadze, a former ally of Pres. Saakashvili, founded a
new party: the Democratic Movement-United Georgia.
(AP, 11/24/08)(WSJ, 11/24/08, p.A8)
2008 Nov 29, Georgia said it is
cutting diplomatic relations with Nicaragua after the Central American
nation recognized the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Dec 13, Russian troops retook
Perevi village near the breakaway region of South Os-setia just hours
after withdrawing. The move drew criticism from Georgia, the EU and US
Sena-tor John Kerry, who was on a half-day visit to Tbilisi.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 22, OSCE talks on the
Georgia collapsed, when Russia demanded the group join Moscow in
recognizing the statehood of the provinces of South Ossetia and
Abkhazia. The mission will expire on Dec 31.
(AP, 12/23/08)
2009 Jan 19, Russia released a
text by President Dmitry Medvedev ordering the government to introduce
economic sanctions against countries supplying weapons to Georgia.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 30, Georgia's PM Grigol
Mgaloblishvili (35) resigned, citing health reasons after just three
months on the job as President Mikhail Saakashvili's second-in-command.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 18, Georgia and Russia
agreed to let monitors visit anywhere they want in Georgia and its 2
breakaway provinces.
(WSJ, 2/19/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 23, Georgian officials
released videotapes allegedly showing opposition members buying weapons
with the aim of sparking violence during demonstrations against the
president planned for next month.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Mar 29, In Russia the film
"Olympius Inferno," was first broadcast on state television. It
offering the Kremlin's version of the August war with Georgia and
contained anti-American overtones, reflecting Russia's anger over US
support for Georgia.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Apr 9, In Georgia tens of
thousands of protesters thronged the streets in front of the
parliament, calling on Pres. Mikhail Saakashvili to step down in the
largest opposition demon-stration since last year's war with Russia.
(AP, 4/9/09)
2009 Apr 10, About 20,000
demonstrators kept up the pressure on Georgia's president to re-sign,
with some pelting his residence with cabbages and carrots on a second
day of protests.
(AP, 4/10/09)
2009 Apr 22, In Georgia thousands
of opposition supporters from the provinces poured into the capital to
join the protests aimed at forcing President Mikhail Saakashvili to
step down.
(AP, 4/22/09)
2009 Apr 30, Russia signed a deal
with Georgia's two breakaway regions giving Moscow the power to guard
the borders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a move sharply criticized in
Tbilisi.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 May 5, Georgia said it had
ended a brief mutiny at a military base near the capital that broke out
after the arrest of a former special forces commander accused of
planning to disrupt NATO exercises.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 6, NATO launched military
exercises in former Soviet Georgia after heavy criticism from
neighboring Russia and a brief mutiny in the Georgian military.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 7, In Georgia opposition
protesters clashed with police in Tbilisi in the first outbreak of
violence since demonstrations began in April.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.55)
2009 May 7, The European Union
extended its hand to former Soviet republics, holding a summit to draw
them closer into the EU orbit despite Russia's deep misgivings.
Presidents, premiers and their deputies from 33 nations signed an
agreement meant to extend the EU's po-litical and economic ties. The
six ex-Soviet republics to whom the partnership would apply are
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 11, Georgia's pro-Western
president and four of his fiercest opponents failed to agree on a way
to resolve the country's political crisis, a negotiator said, promising
continued street demonstrations to demand his resignation.
(AP, 5/11/09)
2009 May 21, In Georgia police
killed Giorgy Krialashvili, a former military officer accused of
plotting mutiny, and wounded two others in an overnight gunbattle.
Protesters condemned the shootings and blocked Tbilisi streets in the
seventh week of an anti-government campaign.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 Jun 15, Moscow vetoed a
Western-proposed resolution to extend the mandate of UN monitors in the
breakaway region of Abkhazia. It designed to buy time to negotiate a
long-term plan for the 16-year-old monitoring mission in the Black Sea
rebel region.
(Reuters, 6/16/09)
2009 Jul 23, US Vice President Joe
Biden pledged Washington's full support for Georgia a year after its
war with Russia and urged Moscow to abide by a ceasefire pact and pull
its troops back from two rebel regions.
(Reuters, 7/23/09)
2009 Aug 1, Authorities in the
separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia said two mortar shells were
fired into the territory from Georgia proper. Georgia denied the claim
and suggested it was a provocation ahead of the anniversary of last
year's war with Russia.
(AP, 8/1/09)
2009 Aug 8, Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev hailed the Russian victory in a war with Georgia a year
ago, saying the war had redrawn the map of the Caucasus for good.
(Reuters, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 12, Russian PM Vladimir
Putin made a surprise visit to Abkhazia and said Russia will spend at
least 15 billion rubles ($470 million) next year to build Russian
military bases in Abkhazia and tighten the separatist Georgian region's
borders.
(AP, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 31, A Georgian court
sentenced a Turkish cargo ship captain to 24 years in prison for
smuggling and border violations.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 3, Russian’s Foreign
Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko warned Georgia that attempts to
block ships from reaching a Moscow-aligned separatist region of Georgia
could end in military intervention.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 10, In Russia Venezuela’s
President Hugo Chavez recognized the pro-Russian re-bel regions of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, a rare boost to the
Kremlin's campaign for their international acceptance.
(Reuters 9/10/09)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Georgia
End of file