Misery deepened for Georgians on Thursday, as millions were without power and a natural gas shortage forced people to chop wood for heat while snow and freezing temperatures blanketed the capital.
With the ex-Soviet Caucasus Mountain nation suffering its worst energy crisis in years, President &to=http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/92/371/15196_georgia.html' target=_blank>Mikhail Saakashvili cut short his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to try and assuage anxiety that sent residents into long lines to fill kerosene canisters for portable heaters.
Saakashvili said Iran had agreed to supply &to=http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/92/371/11731_georgia.html' target=_blank>Georgia with gas via Azerbaijan. "Iran is ready to start emergency gas deliveries to Georgia within days," he said at an official meeting.
Some people brought jewelry and other valuables to pawn shops to scrape together enough money to buy heaters and kerosene, the price of which has increased sharply. Others could be seen cutting down trees and branches in the capital to burn in wood stoves.
"The situation is horrible," said Georgy Kiknadze, a 60-year-old taxi driver. "Prices for kerosene and firewood have soared, and we have to find a way out of the crisis. My fares also have increased. What can I do?"
The 1991 Soviet collapse, and several years of civil war in the early 1990s, left much of Georgia's energy infrastructure decrepit and in desperate need of repairs, forcing many to rely on generators and wood- and gas-fired heaters and stoves, reports AP.
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