Moscow, 5 May: The statements by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili that Russia is trying to exacerbate the situation in Georgia are evidence that the Georgian president is losing the army's support, Russian political analysts have said.

"Saakashvili's statement that Moscow is trying to destabilize the situation in Georgia makes no sense. In fact, Saakashvili is indeed afraid of one opposition leader, former Defence Minister Irakli Okruashvili, who commands real respect among the military and who at one time built the Georgian army," director of the Political Studies Institute Sergey Markov told Interfax today. (passage omitted)

According to Markov, the events (a mutiny by a tank battalion) show that Saakashvili is losing the support of Georgia's security and law-enforcement agencies step by step. "Only those security and law-enforcement representatives who are being paid by Saakashvili are currently prepared to support him. Money being used in such payments comes from the USA," the political analyst said.

As for Saakashvili's statements that the military mutiny could thwart Georgia's participation in the European Union's Eastern Parthership programme, "only a limited number of Georgian farmers would be prepared to believe this", Markov said.

President of the Politics fund and member of the Public Chamber Vyacheslav Nikonov said that the Georgian president was more and more often having to face dissatisfaction among various categories of the population, including the military.

"Many are dissatisfied with the Georgian president and the sentiment just keeps growing," Nikonov has told Interfax. According to the analyst, Saakashvili's latest statements on "Moscow's hand" in the events in Georgia, confirm that the Georgian leader "is blowing everything out of proportion and that this has become a tradition".

President of the Effective Policy Fund Gleb Pavlovskiy has said that Saakashvili, who has lost all his authority in Georgia, only remains president because Georgia's political class sees no possible replacement for him among the opposition. "The opposition is extremely weak at the moment and this is why Georgia's political class sees no possible replacement for Saakashvili among the opposition, even though Saakashvili's authority is rather low," he said.

In such a situation, the Georgian president, "a cunning player", will be using "various combinations in order to destabilize the situation in the country, which is beneficial for him", Pavlovskiy said.