And compares Putin to a Persian shah
Mikheil Saakashvili has at last discovered Georgia's main enemy. It is Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "Since Shah Abbas Georgia has never had such a vigilant enemy as Putin," Saakashvili said on Friday, speaking live on Georgian television. The telecast lasted four hours, during which the President answered questions from the nation. The most often asked question was this: "Misha, when are you going to resign?"
To understand what Saakashvili meant, it is worthwhile to recollect who Shah Abbas was. Abbas came down in history as the Lion of Iran, the greatest of Persian shahs and an implacable enemy of Christianity. During one of his crusades, he had 100,000 Georgians massacred and 200,000 driven into slavery. Chronicles tell us that 6,000 monks were slaughtered on his orders at one of Georgian monasteries during an Easter service. He wanted more than just to overrun Georgia; he wanted to convert it to Islam. It is to this person that the Georgian President compared Mr Putin.
"We know that our enemy has not yet finished his business. His objective is to dismantle and destroy Georgia's statehood," Saakashvili told his fellow citizens. In his view, this is not a personal feud; Mr Putin wants to demolish Georgia as such. "Russia has decided to wipe me out, but I care little about it," he said.
The President's remarks suggest that he still believes he won the war and hopes soon to restore the country's borders along the Psou River and at the Roki Pass, that is to include Abkhazia and South Ossetia again. He also accused Russia of bribing Western politicians and media to "blacken" Georgia. Answering the opposition, which is demanding early parliamentary and presidential elections, Mr Saakashvili assured that he would not stand down until 2013, when his constitutional term ends.
The audience was particularly interested in the scuffle between the President and Prime Minister Grigol Mgaloblishvili last December. The press wrote that Mr Saakashvili struck the Prime Minister in the face, after which the Prime Minister resigned and is now receiving treatment in Germany. Mr Saakashvili said it was all "a fabrication of the opposition" and "Russian propaganda": the Prime Minister was suffering from overwork. "I am feared by my enemies," he explained the rumours. For if Abbas poses as the enemy, then Mr Saakashvili considers himself a new Georgy Saakadze, who routed the Persian army. Delusions of grandeur, doctors say, often follow in the footsteps of paranoia.
Georgy Shervashidze
