Word: saakashvili
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...sync with songs like "Pretty Woman" and "Somewhere over the Rainbow." The town centerpiece is a long promenade with 800 palm trees, sleek benches designed in Valencia, Spain, and an artificial river lit neon blue. Working through the night, workers built the place in three months. Construction unions, Saakashvili joked, would come to Georgia only "when everything is already built." One of the renovated plazas will host a giant civic New Year's Eve concert featuring Julio Iglesias, whom Saakashvili decided to hire for just over $1 million. While going over blueprints with his Spanish architects, Saakashvili told...
Troubles at Home Saakashvili's grand plans don't impress his opponents. They think that he - like most other leaders in this part of the world - is power-mad. The media and judiciary still aren't nearly independent enough. The opposition, whom Vice Prime Minister Temuri Yakobashvili dismissed as "losers, naifs and traitors," says it is persecuted for its dissent. "This energy and force [Saakashvili] has inside is a rare quality," says Sozar Subari, who was until recently Georgia's public defender. "But unfortunately, he used this to strengthen autocracy, not democracy...
...Saakashvili has faced two major challenges to his leadership. In November 2007, his riot police responded to antigovernment demonstrators by beating them, arresting their leaders and shutting down two television stations. In April, the opposition took to the streets again to call for his resignation. But this time, Saakashvili was restrained. He let the protesters shut down the streets of the capital. Georgians grew tired of the inconvenience, and eventually everyone went home. Many opposition figures say they won't try to force him to resign before his term ends in 2013. Even Khidasheli, an ardent critic of the President...
This means that the future of Georgia once again rests almost entirely on the balance between Saakashvili's good and bad impulses. The case of Irakli Alasania, Georgia's former U.N. ambassador and the country's most credible opposition figure, may provide insight into which side of the President prevails. Several weeks before he officially made the announcement, Alasania told me he was planning to run next spring for mayor of Tbilisi, with the former public defender Subari on his ticket. Allowing such well-respected statesmen to run a free campaign would instantly legitimize the idea of multiparty democracy...
...follow suit. And since the Caucasus region is a key route for getting Central Asian oil and gas to Western markets without going through Russia, Georgia could help lessen the West's dependence on Russian energy. But first Georgia needs to become stable, peaceful and prosperous. History will judge Saakashvili, and all his enthusiasms, on whether or not he can make that happen...