T
here's
nothing to indicate Tbilisi has recently bought a large amount of
new weaponry, as Russia claims, for the simple fact the world's major
arms
exporters have decided not to supply it for the moment. Only the
country's
anti-aircraft defences have been stiffened with light missiles
(manpads) to
guard Georgia's air space.
Elsewhere,
the country's defence budget, which amounts to EUR 419
million, has fallen by 40% this year. In that context, the Georgian
navy, which
proved ineffective in 2008, has been incorporated into the coast guard,
which
answers to the interior ministry. The move put paid to a plan to buy
two new
corvettes.
With
a new defence minister, 41-year- old Vasil Sikharulidze, at the helm
(he was former deputy secretary of Georgia's security council and then
ambassador in Washington), the 32,000-strong Georgian army has adopted
a fresh
strategic document. Named "Vision 2009," it focuses on the defence of
the country rather than on winning back the breakaway provinces of
Abkhazia and
South Ossetia. The accent is on "surveillance-detection-protection"
and Washington, which signed a strategic partnership with Georgia in
early
January, is fully behind it.
The
new Georgian army also needs as new corps of senior officers because
when president Mikheil Saakashvili took power he fired dozens of
officers who
had been trained in Moscow during the Soviet era. In 2008 the country
counted
only five generals while 3,000-man brigades were commanded by
lieutenant
colonels. So a generation of senior officers must be trained up to NATO
standards. To help in that effort, Tbilissi is to send 150 men to
Afghanistan
by the end of the year for surveillance missions in zones under French
command.
In the tense political climate prevailing after the conflict in 2008,
surveillance
of military personnel was handed over to Bacho Akhalaia, deputy
minister of defence.
Oddly, however, he answers to the interior minister, Vano Merabichvili.
The two
found themselves dealing with the mutiny of a tank battalion in early
May
