Mikheil Saakashvili's apparently anguished reaction to Friday's disaster at the Mindeli coal mine in Tkibuli suggests that he is losing confidence in his prime minister, Nika Gilauri.

Late on Friday three miners were killed at the mine in what was the second major disaster at the pit in just five months.

In March, when the previous explosion killed four colliers, Gilauri rushed to the scene to exonerate the mine owner, the government-linked Georgian Industrial Group (GIG).

Then, as we reported, suspiscions were that the prime minister was keen to get the mine onwers off the hook because GIG were also key shareholders in the country's most popular TV station, the pro-government Rustavi 2.

Now, though, it seems that Saakashvili has taken the opposite tack - balming the pit management for both March's disaster and last Friday's:

“It is apparent that no safety instruction is actually being given before the employees enter the mines because together with March's explosion this is the second case this year in which so many lives have been sacrificed in such a small town. Everything points to a lack of discipline on the site. I really do understand how dangerous being a miner is, but still each staff member should be asked about security issues before starting the working day.”

However, it is also clear that the government are going to do little to actually make GIG pay for the consequences of the disaster: despite - or maybe because of - being able to finance a TV station that it is widely agreed has never made an honest profit and which was recently in receipt of a massive tax subsidy from the state - it is the government who are to pay for new jobs for victims' families and education for their children.

The public broadcaster, which has recently been seen as taking a turn towards serious journalistic standards and ethics, looks as though it has returned to being nothing more than a propaganda tool of the Saakashvili regime after it failed to report yesterday's disturbances in central Tbilisi.

The two other national channels - Rustavi 2 and Imedi - also ignored the events: which saw large-scale scuffling outside the parliament, the arrest of opposition activists and the escape from cutody of one of the arrested. But no one seriously expects these channels to do anything than follow the orders of the regime.

The public broadcaster, however, has recently taken advice from the BBC on how to run a news room and has seen non-partisan figures commited to quality journalism join its governing board (which, however, has no editorial role). During the May elections it was the public broadcaster - as opposed to the two national commercial channels - that hosted a debate between mayoral candidates which for the first time put the ruling party on the same footing as the opposition.

Now the elections are over and many western observers have given the conclusion Saakashvili wanted - that he may not be perfect but he's cleaning up his act - the signs are that the regime is once more persuing a path of radicalisation: partly driven by its dire financial straits and the collapse of its libertarian vision of Georgia's future as the country depends on western grants and loans.

Business investors privately say that extortion in the form of raids bty the tax police have increased, refugees in Tbilis are being evicted and faced with a choice between destitution in the capital or merely poverty in the countryside as the regime looks to privatise their former homes and, as yesterday's events suggest, the screw of political repression is being once more slowly tightened.

The Saakashvili regime has repeatedly proved itself to be its own worst enemy and plainly hasn't even learnt the lesson that turning TV stations into propaganda outlets in the long term will only serve to undermine social trust and respect for democracy and the rule of law.

The news agency "Pirveli" is today reporting that Giorgi Arveladze may be replaced as head of the Georgian Media Production group - which owns Imedi TV - by Nika Tabatadze, the former head of rival channel Rustavi 2.

If the story is true it would represent something like revenge for Tabatadze, who was reportedly removed from his job at Rustavi 2 at the orders of Arveladze when the latter was President Saakashvili's chief of staff.

No one should expect Tabatadze, if he does take over, to be anything other than a strong propagandist for the government, however. Why Arveladze wanted him out at Rustavi 2 was never clear, though he did make some comments to the effect there were limits beyond which journalists should not go.

Imedi seems to be in turmoil at present, which a multitude of senior staff being sacked. However, as no one seems to know who actually owns the station - the claim that it was owned by a subsidiary of the Ras Al-Khaimah investment authority (RAKIA) apparently being an elaborate lie, it is not even clear who is nominally calling the shots.

A long time ago - 1974 - a British cabinet minister was reported as saying his opponents in an election campaign were "going round the country, stirring up apathy."

In fact the word used was "complacency" but the more quotable quote - with its obvious disjunction - was the one that stuck and probably conveyed the same meaning anyway: people were being led to believe their vote was not all that important. It is a sense that carries forward into contemporary Georgia and the 30 May local elections

In 1974 the minister, Willie Whitelaw, was worried that people might see the general election as an opportunity to cast a cost free protest vote: maybe he was right, his party lost. But the last thing the Georgian government wants is for people to see 30 May as a way of casting a protest vote in a less important election. Instead the atmosphere is much more like the old anarchist slogan "whoever you vote for the government always win" and people are being lulled into a sense of thinking that either the result is an inevitable victory for the ruling party so there is little point about getting fired up or that, in any case, politics needs to take a back seat to the more urgent task of Georgia's economic development.

For evidence of the stirring up apathy one simply needs to look at the latest media monitoring report on the elections: despite the winner of the mayoral election being generally seen as the front runner to succeed Mikheil Saakashvili as the chief executive of the Georgian state, Rustavi 2, the country's most popular broadcaster and responsible for over ten hours of news broadcasting every week devoted just 28 minutes to the subject between 6 - 12 May.

More positively, the report suggests that opposition candidates, Irakli Alasania in particular, are generally getting a fair crack of the whip in what little coverage there is - though with incumbent Gigi Ugulava well ahead thanks to a skilful propaganda campaign over the previous year (not forgetting the faked Imedi bulletin of 13 March), and a vast one-off boost in public spending in the capital, the regime - and no one doubts they control and pay for all three national stations - can take the gamble on small amounts of balanced coverage for the final few weeks when all the international observers are in town.

Conservative Party leader and National Council candidate for mayor of Tbilisi has confirmed he shot into the air last night after what he described was an attempted attack on his home by "drunken" members of the ruling United National Movement (UNM).

That incident was followed by an altercation with journalists from government-controlled Rustavi 2 television who, says Dzidziguri, turned up at his house at 2am in the morning.

Opposition figures have been assaulted on the streets of Tbilisi in the recent past, so Dzidziguri might point to some justification for his behaviour - especially in the tension that followed yesterday's stand off between opposition and government over the unilaterial decision of ministers, without even reference to parliament, to declare 6 May national police day. But the use of weapons, even if not aimed at individuals, underlines the level of fear and mistrust in Tbilisi and the dangers of an escalation into open violence.

The prosecutor's office say they are preparing a case, based on this incident, of "hooliganism" - a catch-all charge much loved by Soviet and post-Soviet procurators as a way of jailing political trouble makers. Dzidziguri says, though, he has not be interviewed by the police or prosecutors, though few are likely to believe the case will be taken out against the UNM members who, says the opposition leader, were attempting to paste party posters on the walls of Dzidziguri's house.