MP points finger at Russia after Georgian premier is gassed

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, who helped lead the revolution that toppled the corruption-tainted regime of Eduard Shevardnadze, died today from what officials said apparently was a gas leak from a heater.

The former Soviet state’s interior minister said there was no reason to suspect foul play, but an MP pointed the finger at “outside forces”.

His remark appeared to be aimed at Russia, which has ties with Georgia’s separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and prompted a terse response from Moscow.

Amiran Shalamberidze noted that the prime minister’s death came days after a car bombing that killed three policemen in Gori, the city nearest to South Ossetia. Zhvania had been trying to negotiate deals with the separatist regions.

“There is the impression that that these tragic facts didn’t occur by chance but were the results of interference from the side of certain outside forces,” Shalamberidze said

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, asked about the allegation, said in Moscow that “the statements of those who rush to make judgements … will remain on their consciences”.

Georgia has a history of political intrigue that sometimes turns violent. An autopsy was under way and the prosecutor-general’s office said an investigation had been opened.

In addition to the talks with the separatists, Zhvania has been trying to crack down on corruption and crime.

The 41-year-old prime minister was visiting the Tbilisi apartment of his friend Zurab Usupov, deputy governor of the Kvemo-Kartli region, who also died, said Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili.

Security guards broke through a window when they heard no sign of life from inside several hours after the prime minister arrived, Merabishvili said. Zhvania had entered the apartment at about midnight and the guards broke in about four hours later.

“It is an accident,” Merabishvili said. “We can say that poisoning by gas took place.”

A gas-fired heating stove was in the main room of the mezzanine-floor apartment, where a table was set up with a backgammon set lying open upon it. Zhvania was in a chair; Usupov’s body was found in the kitchen. Police declined to give further details of the scene.

Zhvania was a key ally of President Mikhail Saakashvili in leading the November 2003 protests against election fraud which came to be known as the Rose Revolution. The demonstrations drove Shevardnadze to resign.

Named premier after Saakashvili was elected president in January 2004, Zhvania was considered a moderate influence in the government, and he was one of the key figures trying to negotiate a settlement with Abkhazia, as well as South Ossetia.

Zhvania’s government also was working to overcome Georgia’s endemic corruption, which had enriched some Shevardnadze-era officials while the country’s economy deteriorated.

Levan Chichua, a top official in Georgia’s National Bureau of Forensic Medicine, said there were no signs of violence and that preliminary examination showed both died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Deputy Prosecutor-General Georgy Dzhanashia told journalists the heater was installed “with serious technical violations … there was no ventilation in the apartment”.

Central heating is scarce in Georgia. Many people rely on gas or wood stoves in their homes and fatal malfunctions are often reported.

Saakashvili convened an emergency Cabinet meeting, which began with a moment of silence.

“Georgia has lost a great patriot, who devoted his entire life to serving the motherland. Zurab’s death is a great blow to Georgia and to me personally,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram of condolence to Saakashvili, which said that Zhvania “was well known in Russia as a supporter of the development of friendly, good-neighbourly relations between the Russian and Georgian peoples”.