Saakashvili is a dick-tator who kills his own people. He also has an approval rating of 16%.

Don't feed him!!!!!!!

Gloomy in Georgia
by Marisa Morrison

01.18.2007


Shalva Natelashvili, chairman of the Georgian Labor Party, painted a dark picture of his country’s political landscape at the Nixon Center yesterday. Since he last spoke at the center, Natelashvili’s “worst fears were realized” about the current Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili. According to Natelashvili, not only has Saakashvili botched relations with Russia, but he is also presiding over an increasingly oppressive state. Despite these developments, Western leaders continue to shower the Georgian leader with praise.

Although he was one of the leaders of the Rose Revolution, the president—Natelashvili noted—has yet to fulfill promises to make the government more democratic. Instead, Saakashvili recently changed the constitution, without public consent, to extend his term in office. Natelashvili charged that Saakashvili has filled his cabinet with unqualified cronies, including a 26-year-old rumored to be a drug addict. Under the Saakashvili government, Georgia's Constitutional Court has been brought to the brink of collapse; 29 of the 31 justices on that court have resigned. Furthermore, the Georgian Labor Party leader claimed that elections are no fairer than they were under Saakashvili’s ousted predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze. “At least Shevardnadze allowed the opposition to be present in the electoral commission, so they knew how much was being falsified”, said Natelashvili through a translator.

The Georgian Labor Party chairman also alleged that the government bullies its political adversaries. Natelashvili believes that his phone conversations are monitored. Like other opposition figures, he has been accused by Saakashvili of being a “Russian agent” and threatened with the prospect of jail. Natelashvili supposes that the explosions that occurred in front of his party’s headquarters are part of the ruling party’s campaign to suppress political dissent. Furthermore, Natelashvili’s party has difficulty raising funds, as major party contributors often find themselves under state surveillance.

Even members of the ruling elite can be subject to state oppression. Natelashvili said he suspects that the government had a hand in the death of Zurab Zhvania, a prime minister in the Saakashvili government. When asked during his briefing why he had arrived at such a suspicion, Natelashvili pointed to discord that had disturbed the political alliance between the parties of Zhvania and Saakashvili. Natelashvili also said that family members of Zhvania had told him that they believe he was killed, and that they were intimidated by authorities that presented them with two different photographs portraying the scene of his death—one benign, the other compromising to the late prime minister.


The opposition leader suggested that the government's campaign to silence criticism extends beyond the political elite. Natelashvili reported that journalists have been “beaten, harrassed and jailed”, and several publications and television stations have been shuttered by the government. There is only one independent TV station left in Georgia, and its owner has come under pressure to relinquish control of his company. To stay afloat in this harsh climate, some business leaders—to prevent confiscation of their assets—have resorted to bribing government officials.

Since a country “cannot have a good foreign policy without a sound domestic policy”, Natelashvili thinks that Saakashvili’s government has placed Georgia in a precarious international position. The opposition leader believes that Saakashvili has not kept Georgia’s national interests in mind when dealing with other world leaders. In Natelashvili’s view, Georgia’s location—at the crossroads of European and Asian cultures—demands a cautious policy; Georgian leaders should “think about something twelve times before they say it.” However, Saakashvili has chosen to take a more assertive stance, especially with Russia. While Natelashvili acknowledged that Russia-Georgia relations were already tense, he stated that the current Georgian president has worsened the problem by insulting Russian President Vladimir Putin and needlessly sending troops to Georgia’s pro-Russian separatist regions. Saakashvili’s posturing caused Russia to mete out a harsh economic punishment on its smaller neighbor, creating further hardships for many Georgians.

Saakashvili’s controversial policy decisions seem to have hurt his popularity—polls indicate that his approval rating hovers around 16 percent. Nonetheless, Western governments still back the Georgian president, hurting the prospects for peaceful political change. According to Natelashvili, Western “praise turns to tragedy for the Georgian people because he’s infallible.” The opposition leader advised Western governments to cease their unflinching support of Saakashvili and begin to criticize him. As the majority of Georgian people are solidly pro-Western, Western governments should not fear a dramatic reorientation of Georgian policy should Saakashvili lose power. In any case, Natelashvili remains pessimistic about Georgia’s political future; unless early elections are called, suppressed popular anger could be unleashed in an “uncontrolled explosion.”

Marisa Morrison is an apprentice editor at The National Interest.

http://www.nationalinterest.org/PrinterFriendly.aspx?id=13456

I don't trust him at all.

I don't trust Putin, either. I assume both are lying.

He's going to lose his next election. There's no way he can win. If Putin starts releasing massacre pics next week. It's possible that the Georgians will ask Putin to help them too. That could get really interesting.

http://maskofanarchy.blogspot.com/2008/08/south-ossetia-through-looking-glass.html

Despite the appearance of the Georgian leader in the Western media, Saakashvili is certainly not whiter than white. On July 1st 2005, Georgian police violently clashed with protesters in central Tbilisi over the detention of two athletes for blackmail. The initial demonstration soon turned into a demonstration against the central authorities, who had already stopped attempts at an earlier rally. Anti-riot police and special military forces armed with machine guns proceeded to violently disperse the rally and put an end to the anti-government protests. As a result of the rally, 25 people were arrested, including 5 opposition politicians.

Further demonstrations occurred in November 2007 when 50,000 demonstrators took to the streets to protest against the allegedly corrupt Georgian regime. Saakashvilli was accused of presiding over an authoritarian regime and there was a growing demand for fresh democratic elections. Once more the crowds were dispersed with armed riot police utilising tear gas, rubber bullets and water canons. Protesters were beaten and men dressed in black clothes and black masks also attacked protesters. As a result of the violence, some 508 people were admitted to hospital, most suffering with the effects of exposure to tear gas.
http://maskofanarchy.blogspot.com/2008/08/south-ossetia-through-looking-glass.html

:silly: :silly: :silly:

Which is why I think she should resign. Maybe we can talk Putin into running for Speaker. He knows how to deal with Bush. He has a 70% approval rating in Russia. Next week he'll have a 90% approval rating in the world. lol

We also have questionable human rights record, we also kill and imprison more of our own people than other nation on earth.

You said that was a good reason for a sovereign country to be invaded. Right??? :rofl:

Whether we like him or not.

It's being blocked. That makes him a dictator.

I would have loved to have had a new Presidential election in 2006 but a recall on the Presidency doesn't exist in our constitution. If he postpones or cancels the constitionally scheduled elections or is the only person on the ballot than yes...he is a dictator.

Prez election 1/08. Termed 'snap elections', so I take it that they have a parliamentary system and Saakashvili was fending off a no-confidence vote or decided to take advantage of being able to call early elections to prevent an otherwise required vote.

Parliamentary elections in May '08. Irregularities and cases of intimidation, but international observers say the results wouldn't have changed much. The opposition parties asserted much more vote rigging and intimidation than international observers saw, or than they had evidence for (same true in 1/08).

Constitution changed by parliament to allow Saakashvili to have a third term, IIRC. No referendum, so it's not termed a "popular measure"; I don't know if that means it was an unpopular measure or not. Probably not, but that's a hunch.

Note that Natelashvili is the Georgian Labor Party. Lawyer from Tbilisi, trained in international relations in Moscow, was with Shevardnadze's group. Opposed Rose revolution, and lost power and prestige as a result. Pro-nationalisation ("socialist", sometimes a la Chavez, sometimes a la Lenin), objected strongly to a contract or treaty to allow Turkey to use a Georgian port, was pro-Georgian accession into NATO, pro-Europe orientation until he went to Moscow in '06 or '07 and talked to people there. This prompted his being labelled "pro-Russian"; he views it as pragmatist--best to keep your head low and not make waves.

Natelashvili stood alone for his party chairmanship last time there was an election. He wasn't entirely opposed to Saakashvili until the Rose Revolution, or thereabouts. Now he has suspicions about anything that makes Saakashvili look good, that helps Saakashvili, or makes himself look bad--it's all a plot. Could be; sometimes plots happen. Sometimes it's just an inability to admit that you're not deservedly unpopular or losing.

for this statement? Preferably something other than a blog?

Thank you.

Good for the goose...

Lets not be naive. He may be a US ally, but that does not mean he is a white knight. He is using us, and we are using him. If this was about morality, the US would have moved to stop the genocide in Darfur a long time ago.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,526698,00.html

/snip

President Mikhail Saakashvili wants to be re-elected in Georgia on Saturday -- after violent crackdowns on the opposition. This ally of the West is looking more and more like a dictator, with opponents arrested, beaten or sent into exile, and accusations of vote-rigging from critics inside Georgia and abroad.

* * *

Nothing was said, however, about why he put the capital city of Tblisi under a state of emergency on November 7 for a week and a half and allowed 500,000 opposition demonstrators to be cleared off the streets with batons, tear gas and rubber bullets. Not one word about the state thugs who bashed their way into into the transmission center of the independent television channel Imedi ("hope") and shut it down for more than a month.

/snip

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0107/p07s02-woeu.html

/snip

But one opposition leader, Tina Khidasheli of the moderate Republican Party, says the OSCE has been wrong about Georgian elections in the past. "Look what happened in 2003, when the OSCE said the elections were free and fair," she says. "We had the Rose Revolution because we knew their results were false." She chalks up unexplained delays in preparing the final vote tally Sunday as a likely indication that officials are rigging the vote again.

In 2004, Saakashvili swept into office amid euphoria after weeks of street protests over an allegedly rigged parliamentary election that compelled former president Eduard Shevardnadze to resign. Experts give Saakashvili's first term a mixed report card, including good marks for fighting corruption, improving ties with the West, and persuading one of Georgia's three breakaway regions, Adjaria, to return to government control. Georgia's economy has grown by an average 10 percent annually despite a Russian embargo on the country's main exports.

/snip