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The Hillary Clinton confidant who was caught running a clandestine intelligence service for her may have also illegally lobbied for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ally in the nation of Georgia. According to a Gawker report, Sidney Blumenthal, the top Clinton confidant, and “another former official from Bill Clinton’s administration were secretly lobbying the secretary of state on behalf of a billionaire in the former Soviet state of Georgia who was seeking closer ties with Putin’s Russia—seemingly in violation of a federal law designed to prevent foreign powers from covertly wielding influence within the United States.” Blumenthal “passed along a note...

Tbilisi City Court accepted prosecution’s motion and ordered pre-trial detention of former President Mikheil Saakashvili in absentia. Preliminary court hearing – the stage when a presiding judge, among other issues, decides on the admissibility of evidence submitted by the parties – has been set for September 22. Prosecutor’s office has charged Saakashvili with exceeding official powers in connection to break up of the anti-government protest rallies on November 7, 2007, and raid on and “seizure” of Imedi TV station. “Ahead of the August war [six-year] anniversary Putin could not have imagined more desirable present than Georgian authorities ordering my arrest,”...

KYIV, June 24 /Ukrinform/. Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has said he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly declares a truce to reinforce militants in eastern Ukraine to strike a decisive blow.

MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA: No, I'm not surprised. Actually, Georgia was invaded by a large-scale Russian army. I was warning prior to the invasion. Georgia will come and then the new Ukraine will come. Putin is following his blueprint all the way through and actually coincidentally it happened both times during the times of the Olympic. SAAKASHVILI: One thing should be known. In Georgia in 2008 after the reaction was quite late, Putin was stopped at the entrance of our capital by a huge unit who showed, but the international community outcry. George Bush sent...

Why does it matter to the rest of us what happens in Georgia and environs? Answer: if the West cannot help an aspiring ally with dreams of joining Nato and the EU, cannot even protect it from Russian hegemony, what are we doing meddling in the Middle East or anywhere else? And if we can’t help Georgia, then what is left of the West’s victory in the Cold War? I reported on the national elections in Tbilisi, Georgia, last October. On one occasion, I was shown a text from a politician of the party that won the election to a...

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...

Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili admitted responsibility of Georgia for the outbreak of the war in August of 2008. He stated that the actions of the authorities of the country before crossing the border of Georgia by Russian forces were inadequate. This statement will have tangible consequences, first of all, for President Mikhail Saakashvili. "The political noose" around the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's neck is getting tighter. He is not yet being investigated, but the new authorities have already talked about the possibility of his interrogation about the events of 2008. The country may begin a new investigation into...

The sudden death of an exiled Georgian billionaire may have been another "Alexander Litvinenko-style" murder, it is feared. A major crime squad is investigating the death of 52-year-old Badri Patarkatsishvili, whose body was found at his country mansion in Surrey at about 11pm last night. His family said he suffered a heart attack - but Surrey Police have launched an investigation to confirm the exact cause of death after reports of a plot to kill him. Sky News' home affairs correspondent Mark White said: "The police want to leave no stone uncovered. "In the light of Litvinenko's death in 2006...

Forty-seven world leaders are Barack Obama’s guests in Washington Tuesday at the nuclear security summit. Obama is holding bilateral meetings with just 12 of them. That’s led to some awkward exclusions -- and some unfortunate appearances, as well. One of those left out was Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia, who got a phone call from Obama last week instead of a meeting in Washington. His exclusion must have prompted broad smiles in Moscow, where Saakashvili is considered public enemy no. 1 -- a leader whom Russia tried to topple by force in the summer of 2008. After all, Obama met...

Outraged Georgians have slammed a local television channel that sparked panic by broadcasting a faked report announcing that Russia had launched an invasion and the country's president was dead. The Georgian opposition condemned the newscast as a state-sponsored stunt aimed at smearing President Mikheil Saakashvili's critics while the president himself added to the furore by appearing to defend the broadcast. The report, aired Saturday night on privately owned Imedi television, said Russian tanks were headed for the capital Tbilisi, Saakashvili had been killed and that some opposition leaders had sided with invading forces. "It was indeed a very unpleasant program...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/readout-vice-president-biden-s-call-georgian-president-saakashvili Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Vice President For Immediate Release November 19, 2009 Readout of Vice President Biden’s Call to Georgian President Saakashvili Vice President Biden called Georgian President Saakashvili on November 18, 2009, to discuss democratic reform in Georgia and to reiterate the United States’ strong support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Vice President underscored the importance of sustaining the commitment to democratic reform to fulfill the promise of the Rose Revolution. He also emphasized that all parties should live...

LONDON, July 20 (Itar-Tass) - Georgia’s hopes of joining NATO are “almost dead,” which is tragic, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said in an interview with the U.S. Wall Street Journal Europe printed in London. “It is tragic,” Saakashvili stressed. “It means the Russians fought for the right reasons,” he added. The newspaper noted that the Georgian leader referred to the situation around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Unpublished documents produced by the European Union commission that investigated the conflict between Georgia and Moscow assign much of the blame to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. But the Kremlin and Ossetian militias are also partly responsible.From her office on Avenue de la Paix, Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, 58, looks out onto the botanical gardens in peaceful Geneva. The view offers a welcome respite from the stacks of documents on her desk, which deal exclusively with war and war blame. They contain the responses, from the conflicting parties in the Caucasus region -- Russia, Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- to...

U.S. Republican senator, John McCain, said what the Georgian people had “accomplished since the Rose Revolution – in terms of democratic governance, a western orientation, and in domestic reform – is of historic magnitude.” He was speaking at an annual reception of the Georgian Association in the USA in Washington on May 20, where Senator McCain was awarded with the Association’s special award for his “outstanding and unconditional support to Georgian Independence and US-Georgian Friendship.” “Although it has been merely eight months since the world’s attention was riveted by Russia’s invasion, and while the stories may have faded from the...

ASTANA, April 20 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan will not take part in NATO-led military exercises in Georgia in May, the Kazakh defense minister said on Tuesday. Kazakhstan was earlier scheduled to take part in the Cooperative Longbow/Cooperative Lancer-2009 command-and-staff exercise, which Russia has criticized as unhelpful in the wake of last summer's armed conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia. Explaining Kazakhstan's decision, Danial Akhmetov said: "We are too busy for this". The exercise will be held from May 6 through June 1 in Georgia, and will involve 1,300 troops from 19 NATO member or ally states, but will...

In the largest opposition demonstration in Georgia since November 2007— WHEN President Mikheil Saakashvili tested his democratic credentials by sending in riot police to quash the protests—tens of thousands of people filled Tbilisi's leafy Rustaveli Avenue last Thursday to demand Saakashvili's resignation. The president retreated to his residence, where he spoke with NEWSWEEK's Anna Nemtsova about the crowds on the street, his difficult relationship with Russia and how the West has largely abandoned him in recent months. Excerpts: Nemtsova: Who wants your resignation? Saakashvili: Mostly unemployed people. We fired about 250,000 people as a result of our reforms. A big...

In an interview with Newsweek published on April 11, President Saakashvili speaks of sources of opposition funding, about his U.S. friends, his stance of U.S. under Bush and Obama administrations, as well as about being disappointed with the West putting relationships with Georgia on hold while waiting for the outcome of the street protest rallies. Asked who sponsors the Georgian opposition, Saakashvili responded: “Most of the money—millions of dollars—comes from Russian oligarchs. I have documentary proof of that, which I am not making public yet. Whether the money is being sent from Russia under the supervision of the Russian government,...

TBILISI, April 9 (RIA Novosti) - The Georgian opposition said at a large protest rally in Tbilisi on Thursday that President Mikheil Saakashvili should take his "last chance" to resign in order to ensure a peaceful change of power. The largely peaceful demonstration against the president has brought at least 100,000 people out on to the streets of the capital. "Society demands that Mikheil Saakashvili acts correctly and fulfills the will of the people," an opposition statement said. "This is the last chance for the leadership to rise above their personal interests and for the state to show responsibility in...

Georgian opposition movements have planned mass protests for April 9, mostly in Tbilisi but also around the country. These protests could spell trouble for President Mikhail Saakashvili. The Western-leaning president has faced protests before, but this time the opposition is more consolidated than in the past. Furthermore, some members of the government are expected to join in the protests, and Russia has stepped up its efforts to oust Saakashvili.Opposition parties inside Georgia are planning mass protests for April 9, mainly in the capital city of Tbilisi but also across the country. The protests are against President Mikhail Saakashvili and are...

For the first time ever, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has admitted that his country started the military conflict in South Ossetia in August. But the Georgian leader is adamant the action was justified. He was testifying before a parliamentary commission investigating the five-day war. According to Saakashvili, the attack on the South Ossetian capital, which involved night shelling of residential areas with multiple rocket launcher systems, was aimed at protecting Georgian citizens. He said it was a response to Russia’s “intervention” in the region. “We did start military action to take control of Tskhinvali and other unruly areas. But we...