Saakashvili’s “democracy” in Georgia

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Saakashvili’s “democracy” in Georgia
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Aug 28, 2008

(WMR) -- While the neocon media and the George Soros-funded “progressive left” defends the Georgian government of Mikheil Saakashvili against so-called Russian “aggression,” it should be recalled that Saakashvili is anything but a paragon of democracy.

Shalva Natelashvili would agree with those in Russia and the United States who question Saakashvili’s foreign entanglements and political and economic agenda. Natelashvili, as the leader of Georgia’s opposition Labor Party, has experienced Saakashvili’s dictatorship first-hand.

Natelashvili is no friend of Saakashvili’s patrons in the United States, backers that span the political aisle from Barack Obama’s financial backer George Soros and chief foreign policy adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski to John McCain’s top foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann. For that reason, Natelashvili favors closer ties between Georgia and Russia. Natelashvili has called Soros the “real president of Georgia,” suggesting that Saakashvili is merely Soros’ puppet. Natelashvili has also called Matthew Bryza, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and her special envoy to Georgia, a tool of the Soros-backed Georgian government. Natelashvili has called for Bryza’s resignation.

Natelashvili’s program of restoring free natural gas and electricity to Georgia for three years as a way to lighten the financial burden of utility bills on poor Georgian households did not earn him any points with Saakashvili or Soros, a person who preys on the poor and unemployed through his vulture capitalist practices. And to earn him greater wrath from the Soros crowd, Natelashvili opposes the privatization of state-owned industries and wants them returned to state control, as well as reducing the power of Georgia’s neocon “unitary executive” presidency.

The pseudo-democrat Saakashvili responded to Natelashvili by accusing him of espionage prior to the presidential election last January, an election which Saakashvili won amid charges by the opposition of election fraud. Natelashvili was accused by the neocon government in Tbilisi of meeting with Russian intelligence agents and planning to overthrow the government. Earlier, Saakashvili’s government had arrested opposition leader Irakli Okruashvili and issued charges against wealthy businessman and opposition leader Badri Patarkatsishvili and Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, the son of the first Georgian president. Patarkatsishvili, the co-owner of Georgia’s Imedi TV network, died suddenly outside of London last February at the age of 53. He was a bitter opponent of Saakashvili and many Georgians and some British police suspected foul play in his death, ruled later as a heart attack.

The convergence of Soros and the Obama campaign on one side and Scheunemann and the McCain campaign on the other illustrates the lack of difference between the Democrats and Republicans when it comes to revanchist Cold War politics. Scheunemann was a member of the neocon Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and favors expansion of NATO. Obama’s foreign policy team of Brzezinski and Wesley Clark are in agreement with Scheunemann whose Orion Strategies has made a fortune in lobbying for NATO expansion and awarding countries like Latvia lucrative contracts in U.S.-occupied Iraq. Scheunemann is close to Iraq National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi whose bogus intelligence helped launch the U.S. misadventure in Iraq.

The Soros network has funded a series of democracy manipulation revolutions around the world, including the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, the Olive Tree Revolution in Palestine (that saw Hamas come to power), the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, the Purple Revolution in Iraq (that saw a Shi’a-dominated government friendly to Iran come to power), and the Saffron Revolution in Burma (one that was crushed by the military). There were also abortive themed revolutions in Moldova and Belarus. Not to be omitted is the Orange Democratic Movement’s uprising in Kenya, one that saw thousands murdered before the Orange movement’s leader Raila Odinga became Prime Minister in a power-sharing government. Odinga’s father Oginga Odinga was a close friend of Barack Obama’s father, Barack Obama, Sr.

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

Copyright © 2008 WayneMadenReport.com

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).