Word: saakashvili
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Saakashvili went out of his way to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin that he could serve as a go-between to hammer out an acceptable balance of American and Russian interests in the Caucasus. This let Saakashvili restore Ajaria, one of the breakaway and Moscow-oriented provinces, to Georgia's central authority, as Putin gave it up as a test of Saakashvili's intentions. At that, however, Saakashvili's luck seems to have run out: Russia firmly controls Abkhazia and South Ossetia - the other two breakaway republics, with no intentions of giving them back, and keeps turning up the heat...
...failure to return the lost territories seriously undercut Saakashvili at home. Many began to grumble about his reform not improving their living conditions fast enough. Complaints arose that his macro-reform was adversely affecting ordinary businessmen and traders. A crackdown on the black market in cigarettes and alcohol left thousands of street vendors without jobs. Growing incomes are offset by rising inflation and these reforms have made many Georgians pay tax and utilities bills in full. The government is also dramatically increasing the defense budget instead of raising pensions. The opposition, represented by nine parties, invoked Saakashvili's increasingly authoritarian...
...opposition also alleged corruption and crime in Saakashvili's own team. The real bombshell came in September 2007, when Irakli Okruashvili, once Saakashvili's closest confidant and Defense Minister, publicly accused the President of ordering a political murder. Okruashvili also claimed that the popular Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, whose mysterious death in January 2005 was officially explained by a gas leak, was in fact murdered. These allegations have been denied by Saakashvili...
...opposition protest rallies were attracting growing numbers of people, Saakashvili's nerve snapped. In November, he ordered his riot police to crack down, using tear gas and rubber bullets, and clamped the stage of siege on Georgia...
...With even his staunch Western supporters deploring that decision, Saakashvili sought to restore his democratic credentials by lifting the stage of siege, resigning and calling a snap Presidential election, which he now appears to be winning by the skin of his teeth in the first round. This would be crucial as going into a run-off could have proved his undoing...