Word: saakashvili
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...weary dissidents and opposition leaders of Tbilisi call it the Show, the ready display of virility and political kinetics that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili reserves for the many visitors whose good opinion he seeks. "I'm sure you'll be charmed," says Tinatin Khidasheli, a human-rights lawyer who is a leader of the opposition Republican Party of Georgia, over espresso and cigarettes at the brand-new Radisson Tbilisi. "Everyone always...
...Show is a little different for each visitor. For Senator John McCain, it 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...
...anniversary of Georgia's ill-fated war with Russia. A report by the European Union blaming both Russia and Georgia for the conflict was about to be released, but word had already leaked that the report would accuse Georgia of firing the first shots. The war all but ended Saakashvili's dreams of unifying Georgia with the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia - nearly a fifth of its territory - and the report could possibly damage his other great project: convincing the West that Georgia is a reliable military and economic ally...
With much to prove, Saakashvili gave an unusually robust Show during my visit. It started with a ride along the Black Sea coast on his presidential helicopter, and by the time it was finished almost a week later, it had led from the Abkhazian border in the northwest to the central wine country of Kakheti and eventually to the President's offices inside the new glass-and-steel chancellery building in Tbilisi...
...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...