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Georgia Pays Dearly for Image Boost

October 18, 2011

Daily Nation

The Georgian government has concluded contracts with American public relations firms. One of these companies is Podesta Group.

It is this company which helped the president of Georgia, Mr Mikheil Saakashvili to make his first visit to the US in 2010, the first one under the presidency of Barack Obama.

Georgia has been extending a six-month contract worth $300,000 with the lobbying firm. According to documents submitted by the company to the US Justice Department, Podesta Group would “lobby for the interests of Georgia and help it in arranging contacts with governmental and non-governmental organizations and the Press.”

In addition, it pledged to organise meetings of Georgian politicians with US congressmen. In the past, Mr Saakashvili was a favourite of then US President George W. Bush and a frequent guest on Western TV channels.

He was perceived as the personification of democracy in the former USSR. However, his position was complicated when the EU published a report on the Caucasus conflict of August 2008, alleging that it was Georgia who began the war in South Ossetia.

The once-warm relations between Washington and Tbilisi cooled after Mr Bush left the White House.

The contract with Podesta Group is not the only deal signed by the head of the Georgian National Security Council. In particular, there is also a similar operating contract with an equally influential lobbying company in Washington - Gephardt Government Affairs.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/Georgia+pays+dearly+for+image+boost+/-/1068/1257172/-/w1wb4bz/-/

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