the knives are being sharpened for Saakashvili.   


By Brian Rohan

PARIS (Reuters) - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili had long planned 
a military strike to seize back the breakaway region of South Ossetia but 
executed it poorly, making it easy for Russia to retaliate, Saakashvili's 
former defence minister said.

Irakly Okruashvili, Georgia's leading political exile, said in a weekend 
interview in Paris that the United States was partly to blame for the 
war, having failed to check the ambitions of what he called a man with 
democratic failings.

Saakashvili's days as president were now numbered, he said.


rest of story at 


http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSLD12378020080914

and

Georgia opposition leader slams Saakashvili

By Isabel Gorst in Tbilisi

Published: September 9 2008 19:20 | Last updated: September 9 2008 19:20

Rumblings of political dissent in Georgia surfaced on Tuesday after a 
senior member of the opposition called for the resignation of Mikheil 
Saakashvili, the country’s beleaguered president.

David Gamkrelidze, the leader of the New Right opposition party, 
said,Saakashvili bears political and moral responsibility for starting 
the war [with Russia] and for its catastrophic consequences. He can no 
longer be the leader of Georgia. 

rest at 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/84ae3b1a-7e97-11dd-b1af-000077b07658.html

"basho007"
>
> http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSLD12378020080914
> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/84ae3b1a-7e97-11dd-b1af-000077b07658.html

Saakashvili is toast, I'm pretty sure. Various interests in the West have 
been spinning Ossetia to suit their own ends, but none of them needs a 
Balkan ethnic cleanser at the table.

One question still open is to which Western country Saakashvili will flee. 
In London he could join that great champion of freedom Ahmed Zakayev -- the 
guy who promoted Shamil Basayev as a reward for the Moscow theatre atrocity.

LH