Posted on 09/29/2013 2:42:38 PM PDT by annalex
|
| President Saakashvili addresses UN General Assembly, September 25, 2013. |
In his address to the UN General Assembly on September 25, Georgia’s outgoing President Mikheil Saakashvili lashed out at Russia for mounting “constant pressures and threats” on neighbors and said that “the last authoritarian empire in the world” will fail and its leader Vladimir Putin will vanish from the Russian politics in “few years from now.”
In his speech Saakashvili, whose second and final presidential term nears its end, also mentioned his tenure saying that “many good things” have been done under his leadership, but also added that “some of these things were done at a very high cost.”
“It makes me sick when KGB officer Vladimir Putin lectures the world about freedom, values and democracy,” Saakashvili said. “But this new project [the Eurasian Union] is much more dangerous than his lectures.”
“The Eurasian Union has been shaped as an alternative to the European Union and unveiled by Vladimir Putin as the main project of his new presidency – the new Russian empire,” Saakashvili said in his 30-minute speech.
Russian representatives were listening to Saakashvili’s address for first twenty minutes and then walked out of the General Assembly hall.
Russia’s UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, slammed Saakashvili’s speech as “Russophobic” and said, according to the Russian state-run English-language channel Russia Today: “Luckily for Georgian people, this man – whose mental state needs a professional expertise – is in the twilight of his political career.”
Russia was of the main topics in Saakashvili’s all of the previous nine UN speeches since becoming the Georgian President in 2004. But while in his first two addresses to the UN General Assembly in 2004 and 2005 he was speaking mainly on the need of cooperation, rhetoric was toning up in following years as relations between the two countries were getting worse.
“I was never a great fan of what the French call la langue de bois [wooden language], but as my second term nears its end, I feel more than before the urge to speak my mind,” he said in the address on September 25, which was his lengthiest one than any of his previous UN speeches.
When speaking about the Eurasian Union, he also made an apparent reference to recent remarks by PM Ivanishvili, who said that EU and NATO integration is “cornerstone” of Georgia’s foreign policy and also added that the government was watching and “studying” the Eurasian Union initiative. “If in perspective we see that it is interesting for the strategy of our country, then why not,” Ivanishvili said.
Saakashvili said: Because European and Euro-Atlantic integration take a lot of time and… because there are moments when you might think you are pursuing a mirage… some people in our region might fall victim to fatigue and ask themselves: why not?”
He said that Kremlin’s “mouthpieces”, which he also described as “conscious or unconscious 5th column” identify the EU with “the destruction of family values, the erosion of national traditions and the promotion of gays and lesbians.”
“Strangely, in recent years and even more in recent months, we hear in Tbilisi, Kiev, or Chisinau the same ugly music that was first orchestrated in Moscow that our traditions are collapsing under the influence of the West, that Christian holidays will be replaced by gay pride events, and Churches by multicultural Disney Lands,” Saakashvili said.
Saakashvili also said that “the Russian project is doomed to fail.”
“Few years from now – you will recall my words – Vladimir Putin will have left the Kremlin and vanished from the Russian politics, even if he says that he will be there for another twenty years,” he said. “Russian citizens will remember him as a ghost from the old times – the times of corruption and oppression.”
Saakashvili said that the “hostility” of Putin towards his government “was not based on personal hatreds.”
“Do you think the Kremlin would agree to discuss the de-occupation of our regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, now that the government has changed in Tbilisi? Far from it,” he said. “Despite the friendly statements made by the new Georgian government in the recent weeks and months, the Russian military keep advancing positions, dividing communities with new barbwires.”
‘Cut Corners, Radical Methods and Mistakes’
In his speech, Saakashvili also spoke briefly about his presidential tenure and said that he takes pride in “many accomplishments” that Georgia achieved since 2004.
“We did many good things. When I became the President at that moment I was the youngest president in the world,” he said. “I realize that some of these things were done at a very high cost. In our rush to impose a new reality, against the background of internal and external threats, we have cut comers and certainly made mistakes.”
“We went sometimes too far and other times not far enough. I acknowledge fully my responsibility in all these shortcomings and I sincerely care for all those who have felt that they did not benefit enough from our work or even that they were victims of our radical methods.”
“I want to tell to all Georgian citizens – to those who supported our project, our policies and our party and to those who rejected them – I want to tell them how proud I am of their maturity and their bravery, how humble I feel looking at the sacrifices and the efforts they have made,” he said.
Putin and his clique might be corrupt apparatchics but they are as commie as former Iranian president is a Jew
Yes, but you don't seem to have a realistic grasp of late-USSR communism. That is what they all were, corrupt apparatchiks. This is why there is a continuity from USSR to Putin. Same cards, different game.
I came across a lengthy article about Sino-Russian relations, by the way. Tell me what you think:
Indeed, Russia’s control in Far East is challenged and it is effectively losing control in Central Asia to China with the US actively assisting the red dragon.
And I repeat that Russia will never side with China FOR REAL. There might be some decorative alliances and treaties but the reality is there are no common interests to pursue.
BTW, corrupt aparatchic isn’t = commie. If you want to look at aparatchics you only have to look at DC.
Communism = government owned businesses and one party rule supported by a massive class o freeloaders.
Russia is still moving away from it since late 1980s while US is moving in opposite direction.
There is practically no welfare and socialized healthcare in Russia, there are practically more freedom of speech considering lack of political correctness etc, and the majority of businesses are private owned.
The lack of welfare state and no commitment from the government to create such is the first sign that they are less commie than Washington DC.
People who has to earn for a living with hard work and initiative (and actually benefits from it!) won’t ever make a commie support base.
The USSR sided with Hitler long enough to get itself half Poland, Karelia, and Moldova, and I am probably forgetting something. Then the USSR sided with Roosevelt and Churchhill and got the rest of Central Europe. I think that was, in both instances, “for real” enough, and shows you how little ideological commitment was there even under Stalin.
Formally, of course Russia is not communist, but my point is, that was not the defining characteristic of the post-Stalin USSR either. In both regimes there are the people who are “in” and the rest of the country. The “in” crowd owes everything to Putin and his party, and behaves accordingly.
About Obama’s America — don’t get me started. I agree with you.
>>>The USSR sided with Hitler long enough to get itself half Poland, Karelia, and Moldova, and I am probably forgetting something. Then the USSR sided with Roosevelt and Churchhill and got the rest of Central Europe. I think that was, in both instances, “for real” enough, and shows you how little ideological commitment was there even under Stalin.<<<
Appeasing Hitler and taking advantage of FDR politics is not exactly “siding”.
In case of China there are no touching points at all.
Russian-Chinese relations are nothing but a smoke screen to make the West jealous and scared. True Russian allies in Indochina and Far East are Vietnam and India - both enemies of China.
>>>Formally, of course Russia is not communist, but my point is, that was not the defining characteristic of the post-Stalin USSR either. In both regimes there are the people who are “in” and the rest of the country. The “in” crowd owes everything to Putin and his party, and behaves accordingly.<<<
Post-Stalininst Russia was communist enough to bear a commie status.
Khruschev may have closed Gulags, expelled liberal artists to the West instead of shooting them and allowed people to own automobiles and homes but the means of productions were all state-owned. It was a 100% welfare state with universal government dependency and 100% employment.
It hasn’t changed until 1987.
Not to mention their having successfully established a flat tax structure that rewards hard work, or the ambitious government approved plan to build 200 new churches in the city of Moscow. Not bad for a bunch of godless commie thugs.
You are repeating your previous statements that focus on the unimportant.
The touch points between Russia and China are
- Successful transformation from state-ownership to investment-driven growing manufacturing economy in China, while still under Communist Party command and control, — something Russia was unable to achieve and would like to imitate.
- Russian Far East with its natural resource is target of Chinese economic expansion (see article linked yesterday).
- Common interests in containing or squeezing Muslim Central Asia.
- Common interest in restoring military powers of global reach.
The private ownership in Russia is minor and illusory. The big industry — oil, gas, nuclear, military complex, was either brought to ruin or given to the same KGB strongmen that ruled prior to 1991, for safekeeping. These are today’s oligarch, except Putin replaced the early mafia with his own men. Private enterprise is small and beleaguered, cannot compete with even the near abroad and still requires gangster protection to keep the doors open. This is the same USSR lightly camouflaged.
>>The touch points between Russia and China are - Successful transformation from state-ownership to investment-driven growing manufacturing economy in China, while still under Communist Party command and control, — something Russia was unable to achieve and would like to imitate. - Russian Far East with its natural resource is target of Chinese economic expansion (see article linked yesterday). - Common interests in containing or squeezing Muslim Central Asia. - Common interest in restoring military powers of global reach.<<
None of the above makes ground for cooperation at all with the exception of Muslim issue. But the problem is Muslim groups threatening Russia and China are respectively different, also both nations have both will and resources to deal with a problem on their own.
>>The private ownership in Russia is minor and illusory. The big industry — oil, gas, nuclear, military complex, was either brought to ruin or given to the same KGB strongmen that ruled prior to 1991, for safekeeping. These are today’s oligarch, except Putin replaced the early mafia with his own men. Private enterprise is small and beleaguered, cannot compete with even the near abroad and still requires gangster protection to keep the doors open. This is the same USSR lightly camouflaged.<<
Well, if you think so...
All Muslim easily funge one into the other, and Central Asia Muslim are right between the two countries, hence are common concern. Military and economic complementarity logically leads to alliances — how is that “not grounds for cooperation”?
If so, muslim problem is a reason for US-Russian alliance but it works either way.
That is because the US policy is two-way, especially on Syria it is quite schizophrenic; yet cooperation with Russia over Afghanistan — including the NATO base in central Russia — is one of the ties that proved enduring.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.