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Georgian politician suspected of leading Russian opposition

Russia’s Investigative Committee has produced another revealing statement regarding the opposition

Russia’s Investigative Committee has produced another revealing statement regarding the opposition. The investigation has proofs Georgia’s politician Givi Targamadze not only financed the Russian opposition, but managed directly its leaders during the March of Millions in Moscow, the Investigative Committee’s spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Thursday.

According to Markin, Leonid Razvozzhayev refused to surrender, though this did not affect the investigation much, as it had other information and proofs under the case, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes. Markin said, the investigation had drafted a request for legal assistance, which Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office will send soon to Georgia’s authorities. The newspaper writes that earlier information was that Razvozzhayev had signed a voluntary surrender, where he stated the mass disorders in Bolotnaya Square in Moscow on May 6 had been financed by Georgia’s former Chairman of the parliamentary committee on defence and security Givi Targamadze. But later on Razvozzhayev rejected the statement.

The Investigative Committee’s site reads that the investigation “is not interested in publication of negotiations between Givi Targamadze and leaders of the Russian opposition,” the Kommersant reports. However, since the materials have been published in the media, the Investigative Committee did confirm their existence. Episodes from negotiations between several leaders of the Russian opposition and Targamadze, which the television had broadcasted, caused the investigation. Printouts of recent talks of the Georgian politician, which must have become the reason for the Investigative Committee’s request to Georgia, prove that the task Givi Targamadze voiced during the private negotiations was that the March of Millions overtopped the Russian presidential election.

The Nezavisimaya Gazeta says Markin made the statement exactly 15 minutes after the Internet received a detailed printout of the negotiations between supposedly leaders of the Russian radical opposition with their Georgian sponsors. That looked rather weird, the newspaper writes, it seemed Markin was sitting by the monitor waiting for the post to appear on the Internet, and then immediately drafted the speech – in hot pursuit – while the usual procedure seems to require cautions approval of response to any information.

The printout, the newspaper continues, reads about how the parties in the negotiation were preparing to various unexpected situations which could have happened during the protest rally of June 12. The most vivid discussions were about three topics. The first one is financing of the rally. “We are not asking for much,” an opposition leader is saying. “You must be asking for a lot!” a man with a strong Georgian accent responds. “I will be in London, and there we shall be discussing the big money.”

The newspaper calls it a “turbid story,” as Udaltsov, like he did following the Anatomy of Protest – 2 film, would not say straightforwardly: “This very discussion never existed. This is not my voice. It is dubbed.” Instead of this we hear the voice: “Mumbling… Propaganda.” The newspaper however, does not consider the recording a mumbling. Nor a child’s mumbling. Otherwise, one should have considered it to be a piece of high art featuring very good actors. Those are hardly to be found at the Investigative Committee.

The Kommersant refers to official representatives of Georgia’s Justice Ministry and Prosecutor General’s Office as stating that neither authority had received any aid requests from Moscow. Even if a request arrives, the Georgian side rejected categorically an opportunity of extraditing the country’s citizen to Russia.

Givi Targamadze does not fear criminal responsibility in Russia. “Russia may demand questioning me, but Georgia would not agree to it. If it agrees, we shall remember the times of our youth and will do with this power what it deserves,” the politician threatened adding he meant organisation of a revolution in Georgia.

Udaltsov himself called “hundred-percent lies” the accusations of the opposition. “The protest was organised by ordinary people, and there was no interference from anybody outside. Nobody gave orders what to do and where to go,” he said.

The Moskovsky Komsomolets writes about personality of Givi Targamadze. Aide to Georgia’s Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, head of Georgia’s Development Research Institute Giya Khukhashvili told the newspaper that Targamadze “tried to become a sort of “international revolutionary” and always interfered with political processes in other countries: in Belarus, Ukraine. “But it always ended poorly for those who cooperated with him. For example, he participated in Ukraine’s former election and supported Yulia Timoshenko, who is in jail now. Belarus also experienced his weird actions. Possibly, he is simply a provoker and must be working for opponents of those with who he is supposed to cooperate. Or he is involved in this weird business of his.”