The fate of Georgia’s Rose Revolution and its charismatic leader Mikheil Saakashvili (known affectionately as Misha) is a classic case of the hangover following the intoxication of power. Saakashvili, a lawyer with a degree from Columbia Law School in the US, shot to prominence as the ‘young Turk’ at the head of the democratic forces that threw out the Georgian leader and former Bush darling Eduard Shevardnadze and his corrupt nomenklatura in 2003.
This ushered in what was supposed to be a model of democracy for the Caucasus – a region hardly used to this form of governance. The headstrong Misha was never going to have an easy time of it. His tilt toward the West, particularly his love affair with the Bush Administration, was bound to annoy Moscow. There is a tendency amongst some of the leadership emerging from Russia’s shadow in the post-Soviet world to believe ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. An unfortunate mistake when it comes to the US.
