Word: saakashvili
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Georgian velvet revolution!" proclaimed jubilant radical opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili as he and hundreds of cheering supporters burst into Tbilisi's parliament Saturday afternoon. By nightfall, the country was in chaos, its leadership uncertain, its territorial integrity threatened - and there were still some fears that the velvet might become stained with blood. The legislative body, elected in Nov 2. polls that were marred by charges of widespread vote rigging, had been ordered into session by President Eduard Shevardnadze, but only 114 of the 235 deputies had bothered to show up. The security services, who had earlier said they would...
...want to choose a different way of life from this old Soviet bureaucracy," says Zurab Zhvania, the former speaker of Parliament who resigned in order to distance himself from Shevardnadze's policies. "The balance of power should be with Parliament." He is echoed by Mikhail Saakashvili, a young Western-thinking leader in Parliament and one of Georgia's few genuinely popular politicians. "We cannot imagine Shevardnadze maintaining his wide powers," he says. The reformers envision a strong Parliament headed by an elected prime minister. Shevardnadze, on the other hand, would prefer the P.M. to be appointed by the president...