News agencies have been reporting in the last few minutes that President Mikhail Saakashvili has declared there will be a snap presidential election on Jan. 5.
If true, it's a wise move by President Misha. His move to crack down on protests this week and declare a state of emergency smelled of the kind of autocracy he once stood against.
It's also politically smart: the opposition so far doesn't have a single figure it can rally around, now they have less than two months to find someone. Unless Nino Burjanadze, the popular speaker of parliament and a loyal Saakashvili ally, can be convinced to run against him, Saakashvili's main contender is likely to be the controversial ex-defense minister Irakli Okruashvili, who is currently in exile in Germany, avoiding prosecution on corruption charges.
Saakashvili's decision to deploy soldiers on the streets of Tbilisi to quell the opposition protests this week shouldn't be forgotten, or forgiven, but I'd still bet that Misha comes out of this smelling, well, like roses.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili declared a state of emergency
I'm surprised to see you pass up a chance to criticize Western governments, who are far more responsible for this crisis than Saakashvili because they haven't done enough to guarantee his security against Russian encroachments, which are well documented and relentless. He has every right to feel besieged, because he is, and it's his duty to protect his country's independence.
You can blab all you like about how he shouldn't have cracked down on the protesters, but if he adopts the openness you advise and then Russia invades, and the West does nothing and Georgia is swallowed like Czechoslovakia, what will you say then? Oops, sorry 'bout that?
Here's a little imagination exercise: The United States has presidential elections scheduled for November 2008. Let's just imagine that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran comes to visit the United Nations next week, and while he's here he uses some of his country's oil revenues to buy himself a few thousand protesters (he can get them off the rack at Moveon.org, cheaper by the dozen; a few members of Congress might even come along). Let's say they go down to Washington DC and camp outside the White House. They hang George Bush (let's say he's only on his first term) in effigy and call him a terrorist. They call for his impeachment, and they won't leave no matter what until Bush agrees to move up the November elections to January and stand for reelection right away.
Should he do it? Should he prove to this cadre of wackos, lackeys of a foreign rogue regime, that the country really supports him? Should he call an election every week, if that's what they demand?
Russia has now forced elections in Ukraine, tried to subvert them, lost, and now moved on to Georgia. Russia's hypocrisy in demanding that the West stay out of its "internal" affairs while showing no such respect to other countries is outrageous and barbaric, and must be met with appropriate force.
Why has the last russian soldier left Georgia? Because of former foreign minister and french national Salome Zurabshvili negotiated it. Not long afterwards, she was dumped for 'promoting her favorites' - what a laugh. She tried to promote professionals to the foreign ministry, so because she wasn't corrupt and did not pick Saakashvili's and his allies' cronies, she was kicked out.
This is the single most important foreign policy success for Georgia. Everyone ignores it, including most of the western mass media because it is clear proof that Russia will negotiate with normal people. Salome is, Mikhail isn't.
His rhetoric has been nothing but counter productive. BTW, has the United States stopped giving money to Georgia to buy Iranian gas yet or is it still going with all the other free handouts preferred 'client' states receive? Does anyone know how much it is?
He who pays the piper... gets embarrassed.
Who is the US' preferred backup?
Would NATO go to war with Russia over Georgia? Nope. This is despite 'an attack on one being an attack on all'. NATO's a joke, constantly begging publically for more soldiers for Afghanistan.
Post a Comment