Word: georgians
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...danger continues. Russia, which has recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states (only Nicaragua and Venezuela have followed suit), has evicted all international monitors from the territories and is most likely arming those areas to the teeth. Georgia's new Defense Minister, Bacho Akhalaia, told me the Georgian army will "stay calm." But the military is rebuilding. An infantry battalion will deploy to Afghanistan in January under the command of U.S. Marines, and it will return, as veterans did from a deployment in Iraq, with more experience and confidence for the next engagement. Though the E.U. report found that...
...meant jet-skiing with Saakashvili on the Black Sea. Vice President Joe Biden was treated to a twirling, leaping folk-dance spectacular in Tbilisi. More than a few reporters have been granted late-night interviews on Saakashvili's presidential plane, a sleek Bombardier Challenger stocked with cognac and patriotic Georgian music videos. (See TIME's photo-essay "Georgian Spring...
Saakashvili still has the immense talent for communication that made him an international celebrity when he took power after 2003's bloodless Rose Revolution. He's an imposing man - at 6 ft. 4 in. (193 cm), he is the tallest Georgian I saw until we watched the national basketball team beat Belarus - with a polyglot charisma. At various times throughout the week, he spoke to me in Russian, Spanish and - above all - his famous English, an enthusiastic tumble of idiomatic American that he learned while studying and practicing law in New York City and Washington. (See pictures of the Russians...
Unlike many Georgians, Saakashvili doesn't smoke. He drinks, but less than those around him. He is almost compulsively social and enjoys the company of beautiful women. On the wall of his office is a series of photos of him picking up the Georgian-born British pop star Katie Melua, 25, like a newlywed crossing the threshold. More than anything, though, Saakashvili is restless. His jitters can at times make him seem like an overgrown adolescent. Cameras caught him chewing nervously on his tie during last August's war, a gesture he has been careful not to repeat...
...last year's war, with his military routed, Saakashvili latched on to development as a sort of defense guarantee: "It's very uncomfortable to bomb skyscrapers. It looks very, very ugly." He said he spends 80% of his time looking for investors, cooking up projects and cheerleading for the Georgian economy...