Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Plot or Counterplot?

The Republic of Georgia is reporting a situation of mutiny, possibly linked to a coup d'etat plot, at the Mukhrovani military base near Tbilisi.

The mutiny seems contained, and the officers responsible for the base have been relieved of command.

It appears the plot was designed to disrupt the NATO exercises at Vaziani that are due to start on the 6th of this month.

Alternative reporting on this from The Guardian UK and FOXNews / AP.

Oh, guess it is probably worth mentioning that the Government of Georgia is claiming to have arrested a coup plotter and has announced at a news conference that the plotters "were receiving money from Russia". The FOXNews source linked above cites
Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the suspected coup plot was organized by a former special forces commander, Georgy Gvaladze. Gvaladze and an army officer on active duty have been arrested, the spokesman said.

The coup plotters, backed by 5,000 Russian troops, were planning to disrupt NATO military exercises set to begin Wednesday in Georgia, Utiashvili said.
Not unbelievable, but does Russia really want to start a fight (again) at this time? Because being part of an attack on a NATO cooperation exercise would pretty much meet my definition of an act of war.

1 comment:

L.Douglas Garrett said...

RFE/RL is now reporting that the mutineers have surrendered after negotiations that included a visit to the base by President M. Saakashvili. The commander of the base has been placed under arrest.