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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| You Can Call Me ‘Misha’: How naiveté and an erratic streak may have doomed Saakashvili |
| 2008-08-27 |
| It would have been hard not to be charmed by Mikheil Saakashvili. Young, dynamic, Western-educated and -oriented, he was among the most intriguing characters to move onto the global stage after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Last year he invited the press to join him in the Black Sea resort town of Batumi. The program: a quick ride on Jet Skis to the Turkish border to see the latest developments along the shore--new statues, fountains, a skating rink on the beach, cafés and restaurants. Afterward, the press joined the president and his administration--among the youngest in the world--to the opening of a new amusement park, where Saakashvili took a ride on every new roller coaster (ostensibly as a safety check before children arrived) and encouraged his colleagues to join him. Watching the Georgian political elite spinning upside down, laughing, one would think they were a group of young students. Saakashvili, still shy of 40, told the journalists to call him "Misha." The Western press adored him, and so did Georgia. When he took office in 2004, Georgia was a corrupt, broken country, with a budget of $400 million and thousands of refugees from the breakaway regions of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Adzharia living in Soviet-style hotels. But Misha had two goals: to integrate the separatist regions back into Georgia, and align his country with the West rather than Russia. Over the years, I met with him on five occasions, on the Black Sea coast and in Tbilisi, and his message was always the same: Georgia wants to be with the West. "The more Russia pushes us out of the market ... the better performance we will show the world. No matter what Russia does, we perform." So with the threat to the north, Misha looked West. He sent 2,000 troops to Iraq--the third largest contingent after the United States and Great Britain--and reformed the Georgian military (aided by U.S. training and equipment) in preparation, he believed, for one day joining NATO. He cut taxes and reined in corruption. And when Russia pushed back-- by 2006 it had expelled thousands of Georgians, stopped giving Georgians visas and banned most Georgian imports--he heaped praise on George W. Bush and argued that once Georgia was in NATO, the Russian threat would subside. I met him for the first time that year, at 1 a.m. in his Tbilisi office, in the midst of a crisis with Russia, and he looked unbreakable, insisting that joining NATO would "guarantee a stable climate." |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #6 Compare wid REGNUM > MODERATE KOLEROV:THE NEW BIG CAUCASUS. MUTUAL CONTAINMENT WITHOUT ALIENS/OUTSIDERS. WHAT EXISTS NO MORE AND WHAT CAN YET STILL HAPPEN. Russo-Georgian Conflict, Russ-US/NATO, + the DEATH OF OLD RUSS-CENTASIA AGENDAS AND COOPERS versus BIRTH OF NEW AGENDAS AND COOPERS. IIUC/IICC, the forecasted- predicted or desired NEW [mostly ANTI-US/NATO-EU] AGENDAS + REGIONAL COOPERATIVE SECURITY ALLIANCES INFERS VENTURES BTWN RUSSIA + STRONG MUSLIM NATIONS. It is NOT clear in this artic just how potent Russ will be vv newfound Muslim allies - WHAT IS CLEAR IS THAT RUSS AMBITIONS REGUIRE PRESENTLY WEAK, MOSTLY MUSLIM FORMER SSRS TO BECOME NATIONALLY/LOCALLY STRONG VV BOTH RUSS + US-NATO/EU. * RIAN > HOW RUSSIA CLOBBERED GEORGIA BUT LOST THE WAR [agz US-NATO/EU]. Georgian War, etc. is covertly strategically about the US-led containment and weakening of its only other major Nuclear Competitor capable of militarily challenging and defeating its power. Also from REGUM > MEDVEDEV: IFF NATO [Russia?] BREAKS UP [ceases relations wid Russ?], RUSSIA [US-NATO, World?]WILL LIVE WITH IT; + US DOVES [USN-NATO Ships]BRING TO GEORGIA TOMAHAWK LAND ATTACK CRUISE MISSLES, + NAVAL SHOW OF FORCE: 150-KM SEPARATE BWTN RUSSIAN BLACK SEA FLEET AND NATO NAVY + MOSKVA AND IVANOVETS MISSLE BOATS [5 ea. Russ Warships]total]ANCHOR IN ABKKAZIAN TERRITORAL WATERS, + BLACK SEA FLEET STARTS TRACKING NATO GUESTS. RUSS > 1936 International Convention on Black Sea limited Ship Types, Numbers, and Order of Presence. Warships can not be greater than 45000 tonnes nor stay longer than 21 days widout rotation. * KOMMERSANT > RUSSIA DISTURBED/UPSET US CAUCASUS PLANS [Surround Russ wid NATO-Allies in CAUCASUS, Turn Black Sea into "AMERICAN LAKE"]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-08-27 22:26 |
| #5 Praised for bringing relative peace and economic stability ..., he revealed a darker side in November 2007 when he claimed antigovernment protesters sanctioned by Moscow were trying to overthrow his government. The article then goes on to detail various Russion provocations. Given the ensuing events, maybe that 'darker side' remark is unjustified. It's not paranoia if they are really out ot get you. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-08-27 18:38 |
| #4 OS: So newsweek continues to spread the Russian propaganda. Well, the writer's name is Anna Nemtsova. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2008-08-27 13:48 |
| #3 So newsweek continues to spread the Russian propaganda. How nice of them. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-08-27 13:45 |
| #2 Disgusting article. The whole point of it seems to be to take another thinly veiled swipe at GWB. another one of the experts. Read Michael Totten's latest for background on this conflct. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2008-08-27 13:18 |
| #1 Let's see - Russia appears to have decided to annex large chunks of Georgia, but Georgia's leader is to blame because he was too naive to understand that Russia would decide to expand its territorial boundaries. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2008-08-27 12:38 |