Mikheil Saakashvili

Mikheil Saakashvili became the President of Georgia on 25 January 2004. He was elected as the president of Georgia on his second term on January 5, 2008 by 53.47% Georgian Government Website, President of Georgia Biography, Accessed 22-April-2009.
==Rose Revolution==
The Rose Revolution refers to demonstrations over rigged elections in Georgia that forced Eduard Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister, to resign. It became the template for Ukraine's Orange revolution in 2004 and led to the elections that handed Saakashvili presidency in 2004Jonathan Steele, Six months after the war, Georgia looks very different, The Guardian, 26-January-2009, Accessed 22-April-2009
===Russo-Georgian War===
Der Spiegel reported in June 2009 that a European Union commission was set to assign Saakashvili some of the blame for Georgia's war with Russia the previous August:
::The experts found no evidence to support claims by the Georgian president, which he also mentioned in an interview with SPIEGEL, that a Russian column of 150 tanks had advanced into South Ossetia on the evening of Aug. 7. According to the commission's findings, the Russian army didn't enter South Ossetia until August 8.
::Commission members note, on the other hand, that Saakashvili had already amassed 12,000 troops and 75 tanks on the border with South Ossetia on the morning of Aug. 7. In their research, they uncovered remarks by the Georgian president that demonstrate that he had long flirted with a military solution to the South Ossetian problem. "If you ask any Georgian soldier why he is serving in the armed forces, each of them will respond: 'To reestablish Georgia's territorial integrity,'" Saakashvili said in a television address on May 25, 2004.Uwe Klussman, EU Probe Creates Burden for Saakashvili, SpiegelOnline, 15 June 2009.
Following the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 Saakashvili commented "Russia's leaders see us as a threat because Georgia is a free country whose people have elected to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic community. But Russia's rulers do not want their nation or its borders contaminated by democratic ideas". He went on "This war threatens not only Georgia but security and liberty around the world. If the international community fails to take a resolute stand, it will sound the death knell for the spread of freedom and democracy everywhere." Concluding that: "We cannot allow Georgia to become the first victim of a new world order as imagined by Moscow." Mikheil Saakashvil, Moscow can't be trusted, The Guardian, 15-August-2008, Accessed 22-April-2008
==Criticism from Georgian Opposition==
Georgian opposition politicians have argued that because Saakashvili has agreed to join NATO he has escaped criticism and scrutiny from the media and politicians in other countries. They have complained that since the Rose Revolution parliament has ammended the constitution to increase it's power, taken over television channels and rigged elections. Election rigging from the previous government led to the Rose RevolutionJonathan Steele, Six months after the war, Georgia looks very different, The Guardian, 26-January-2009, Accessed 22-April-2009.
George Khutsishvili, who heads the International Centre on Conflict and Negotiations, says of Saakashvili's government "These people had authoritarian instincts from the beginning but they had to maintain some sort of liberal democratic slogans. These people want velvet authoritarianism,"Jonathan Steele, Six months after the war, Georgia looks very different, The Guardian, 26-January-2009, Accessed 22-April-2009.
==External Resources==
*David Habakkuk, A falling out of thieves?, European Tribune, 16 June 2009.
*David Habakkuk, How to rescue a rat, European Tribune, 3 July 2009.
==Notes==
Saakashvili, Mikheil