Posted on 02/23/2011 4:39:27 PM PST by cunning_fish
American foreign policy experts, having been caught off guard by the swift regime changes in Tunisia and Egypt, are now examining other countries where citizens have been oppressed and denied basic democratic freedoms. Countries where peaceful street protests have turned violent, where opposition political parties have been brutally squashed, and where economies are in tatters, elections rigged, judicial systems corrupted, and free media bound and gagged.
One of those states is Georgia, where U.S.-backed President Mikheil Saakashvili must be concerned by the latest turn of events in Egypt. He and former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have many similarities.
Georgian opposition leader and former Speaker of the Parliament Nino Burdzhanadze, one of the masterminds of the so-called Rose Revolution which swept Saakashvili into power in 2004, warned that the Georgian capital Tbilisi could erupt in a passionate cry for democracy and change the same way Cairo did. As Burdzhanadze said this week, “a social explosion may take place.” Censorship has increased in Georgia. The Internet and all media outlets are under personal control of the government. Unlawful wiretaps are common.
And popular anger about Saakashvili’s extravagances is brewing. The president built himself a multi-million-dollar palace, bought a private jet with a special ejection seat and is now erecting another palatial domed estate for his wife. He travels with a phalanx of bodyguards and is known, like Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, as a man of “appetites.”
Saakashvili’s term expires in 2013, but he has changed the constitution to allow him to remain on as prime minister. He has also hired four top lobbying firms in Washington, one of which counted Hosni Mubarak as a client.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Do we really want to give Putin an excuse to take back Georgia? He already grabbed a piece of it a few years ago.
Georgia is mainly Christian. I question the authors truthfulness
Georgia is mainly Christian. I question the authors truthfulness
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