Opposition reacts to Saakashvili-Obama meeting

Members of the Georgian opposition are already giving their assessments of Monday's meeting between President Mikheil Saakashvili and President Barack Obama.

Davit Berdzenishvili, a representative from the Republican Party, believes that the leader of one democratic country does not reminds the head of another democratic country that elections should be held fairly. Berdzenishvili noted that Saakashvili was consistently nodding in confirmation of Obama's statements during the post-meeting briefing, "However, when Obama touched upon the election issue, [Saakashvili] stopped and there was a different expression on his face.”

Irakli Sesiashvili, a political analyst for Georgian Dream, remarked that negative or sensitive comments in such meetings are not made in front of the cameras, as "this is part of diplomacy.” He did confirm, though, his belief that the primary message from Obama was connected to the holding of democratic elections and an even-handed transfer of power.

A representative from Our Georgia – Free Democrats, Aleksi Petriashvili, noticed what he thought was a significant comment. Saakashvili stated that 2013 marks the end of his career as President, which Ptriashvili sees as a good sign for free and democratic elections to occur.

Overall, opposition members recognized the importance of the meeting, but hope the Saakashvili administration understands the balance Obama is attempting to strike. "Those serious issues that were pushed forward, like collaboration in the military-political field, NATO integration, deepening of economic relations, are very important. However, they all have a precondition and that precondition is democracy and democratic elections,” insisted Levan Vepkhvadze of the Christian Democratic Movement.

Opposition MP Guram Chakhvadze was pleased with Obama's comments to the President, and mentioned he is now looking forward to the Chicago Summit, "where the U.S. will one more time fix its support towards Georgia.”

However not all opposition members were pleased with the results of the meeting. Labour Party leader, Shalva Natelashvili, called the meeting an “insult to Georgians.” Despite his respect for the United States, Natelashvili said that “the praise regarding successful reforms in Georgia, as voiced by Obama, was extremely abusive to Georgians and one more confirmation that Georgia’s fate is decided in Washington.” He also interpreted Saakashvili's commitment to a “formal" transfer of power to mean that, the President will indeed falsify the elections. Natelashvili also claims that the "occupied regions were not even mentioned by Obama,” and criticized free trade as "profitable", but only for Saakashvili's supporters.