President Mikheil Saakashvili told leading Georgian businessmen on August 31 that he has to exert what he called “light racketeering” by asking each of them to buy at least 10 tons of grapes from Georgian wine-growers in order to lessen the impact of Russia’s decision to ban Georgian wine imports.

President Saakashvili met with businessmen in the town of Sagarego in the eastern region of Kakheti, which is home to over 60% of Georgia’s vineyards. The outdoor meeting, which was televised live, took place in a vineyard.

Saakashvili told businessmen that Russia wants to replace the current government in Georgia by triggering social unrest. According to the President, banning Georgian wine imports was a part of this policy.

Wine-growers fear that they will fail to sell this year's harvest, as Georgian wine-producing companies are cutting production due to the Russian embargo. The authorities are trying to ease protests by thousands of wine-growers, especially on the eve of the upcoming October 5 local elections.

“I want to ask you [businessmen] one thing. We should all help Kakheti this year. We have put an end to state racketeering in Georgia - but today I want to exert some light racketeering on you for the first and last time. So I enjoin each of your companies to buy 10 tons of grapes this year... you can either let you employees eat them, or produce wine from them,” Saakashvili said.

“You should understand that now we are in a state of economic war. This is not an ordinary situation… I have instructed PM Nogaideli to be in charge of the [grape] harvest in Kakheti. In addition, I have also instructed PM Nogaideli, Mikheil Svimonishvili [the Agriculture Minister], Vano Merabishvili [the Interior Minister], Irakli Okruashvili [the Defense Minister] and Zurab Adeishvili [the Prosecutor General] to each be in charge of the harvest in one of the five districts of Kakheti - Signagi, Sagarego, Telavi, Kvareli and Gurgaani,” he added.

Saakashvili also said that the state itself can not purchase grapes, but the state can create conditions for wine-growers to sell grapes, despite Russia’s “embargo.”

“We should overcome this harvest with minimal losses and we should not make our enemies happy… We should not let our enemies see our wine-growers protesting,” Saakashvili said.

Speaking Tough on Russia

During the meeting with businessmen Saakashvili spoke tough on Russia and blamed the “political establishment” in Moscow for deliberately creating problems for the Georgian state.

He told the businessmen that although Georgia is no longer “a terrorizer” of business, as it was during ex-President Shevardnadze’s administration, “a new terrorizer” of the Georgian business has emerged.

“Unfortunately, this is our neighbor's, Russia’s, political establishment,” he said.

“Russia has very firmly expressed its policy in respect to Georgia – I want to believe that this is the policy of only one part of the Russian authorities – and this policy is very simple: not to let Georgia become strong and not to let Georgia restore its territorial integrity,” Saakashvili said.

“Russia has a vividly defined policy aimed at replacing the current government in Georgia very promptly. They are implementing this by trying to stifle Georgia in order to make the Georgian people believe that there is no reason to fight for freedom, to fight for restoring the rule of law in Abkhazia and in Tskhinvali [breakaway South Ossetia] and to make [the Georgian people] overthrow this government and kneel down in front of Russia, because the success of Georgia means a failure of ideology for those decision-makers [in Moscow]. And do not think that they [Russian officials] are promising something in exchange, I know this because I had talks with them, they are telling us: you are in a trouble now, the only thing we can do is not make your situation worse… This was [the content] of my recent talks with our partners in Russia,” Saakashvili said.

He added that the closure of the Zemo Larsi border checkpoint by Russia is partially a message for Armenia.

“Because Russia is telling Armenia: let’s jointly plot [against Georgia]. But of course they will not be able to receive anyone’s consent on this,” the Georgian leader said.

Saakashvili said that Russia has its allies in Georgia that try to facilitate Moscow’s plans in Tbilisi.
 
“Those [political] parties that say that the Georgian government has closed the Russian market to Georgian peasants are allies of Russia… Also those media sources that are disseminating this information are [Russia’s allies]. Those media sources that will start propagating the idea that there is a problem with the [grape] harvest because the government made mistakes, will be [Russia’s allies],” Saakashvili said.

He said that the only solution in the existing situation is to find alternative markets for Georgian wine.

“When will the Russian market be opened to Georgian wine? There is a very simple answer: as soon as they [officials in Russia] see that Georgia has not been devastated… This market will only be opened when Russia sees that Georgia already has alternative markets for its wine,” Saakashvili said.

“Yes, they [Russian officials] do love Georgian wine, but the willingness to harm us is stronger; yes they miss the Georgian wine, but they say, let’s be patient and at first throw [the current Georgian government] away,” he said.

The President said that Georgia should not even hold talks with Moscow about opening the Russian market to Georgian wine.

“It will only make them think that they are on the right path,” Saakashvili said.

“There is no reason to have talks with a predator… The only thing we can do is to say without any rhetoric and irritation: we will do our job anyway,” he added.

“I want to tell the Kakhetian peasants that there will be problems this year, my brothers… But the most important thing now is not to let them [Russian officials] hear our nagging; the most important thing is for our journalists to cover [the harvest] to prevent them [Russian officials] from seeing that they have reached their goal.”

At the end of his speech, President Saakashvili asked Mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulava, who is currently campaigning for the upcoming local elections to retain the post, to unveil his new initiative. Ugulava told the businessmen that the Tbilisi Municipality will buy twice as many grapes as they do. He said the move will be a demonstration of a desire to help the country in a time of trouble.