Georgia President Saakashvili's democratic ideals

In 2004 John Laughland, a trustee of the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, wrote an article in the Guardian about Georgian President Saakashvili. It presents a sharp contrast to statements from John McCain and the US administration which hail the US-educated Georgian leader as stalwart defender of democracy. Laughland wrote:

. . . In an interview with a Dutch magazine, Sandra Roelofs, the Dutch wife of the new Georgian president and hence the new first lady of Georgia, explained that her husband aspires to follow in the long tradition of strong Georgian leaders "like Stalin and Beria". Saakashvili started his march on Tbilisi last November with a rally in front of the statue of Stalin in his birthplace, Gori. Unfazed, the western media continue to chatter about Saakashvili's democratic credentials, even though his seizure of power was consolidated with more than 95% of the vote in a poll in January, and even though he said last week that he did not see the point of having any opposition deputies in the national parliament.

In Sunday's vote - for which final results are mysteriously still unavailable - the government appears to have won nearly every seat. Georgia is now effectively a one-party state, and Saakashvili has even adopted his party flag as the national flag.

The above photo shows a picture of the Stalin statue in Gori, Georgia, the birthplace of Stalin. The town has been in the news recently because Russian troops have occupied it. And just who is "Beria" -- the other person Saakashvili apparently admires? Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was the chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Stalin.

Article and photo: hat-tip to Alex.