Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Tbilisi, June 3 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has accused the Russian authorities of planning to overthrow the Georgian government.

The Russian authorities have decided "to change the government in Georgia and cancel Georgian statehood," he said at a meeting with the parliamentary majority on Thursday.

"They [Russia] have a plan of dividing Georgia into 8-10 regions and do not conceal that. The first step is to wipe out the government without any elections through domestic instability and they are ready to assign large sums for that," Saakashvili said.

In the past few days certain Georgian politicians have been meeting with Russian representatives in Germany and Ukraine, he said. "To ask anything from these representatives is the same as to ask help from an enemy in occupied Akhalgori district," Saakashvili said.

In the past few days opposition leaders - Levan Bachechiladze and David Gamkrelindze - met former Georgian interior minister Kakha Targamadze, who has Russian citizenship, in Berlin, while former parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze met prominent Ukrainian business figure Viktor Pinchuk in Kyiv.

For over a week the Georgian media has been paying much attention to these meetings claiming that the opposition figures had asked money from Targamadze and Pinchuk. According to the Georgian media and the authorities, Targamadze and Pinchuk represent Russian interests.