http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/tina-kandelaki-from-georgia-w
ith-loathing-937580.html

<quotes>

Tina Kandelaki has one of the best known faces in Russia. She's one of the
country's top television presenters, has appeared on the covers of Russian
FHM and Playboy, and runs a successful production company. She is also a
Georgian, one of an estimated one million Georgians who live in Russia, and
whose lives have been turned upside down by the recent conflict between the
two countries over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia.

"Saakashvili did everything possible to bring this about," says Ms
Kandelaki. "Of course the Russian response was disproportionate, and
difficult to deal with, but it was all Saakashvili's fault."

She says that three years ago on a visit to Tbilisi, Mr Saakashvili asked
her to come back home and run a Georgian TV channel.

"To start with, he was charming, but his whole career is based on personal
power and overcoming his own personal complexes," she said. "He told me that
he would go down in history, along with David the Builder, a medieval
Georgian king. He's not David the Builder, he's Mikheil the Destroyer."

She accuses Mr Saakashvili of running Georgia like an autocrat, trampling
free speech and whipping up hatred against Russia. "Twenty four hours a day
they show propaganda about how bad the Russians are," she says. "Everything
there is controlled by Saakashvili - business, and the media. There is no
freedom at all."

"In Russia, every time I'm on television I talk about how I'm a Georgian; I
talk about how much I love my country, and nobody has ever told me to stop
saying this, I've never received a call saying I should talk less about
Georgia, and I've never been discriminated against for being Georgian."

Ms Kandelaki agreed that Mr Saakashvili's reorientation of Georgia will be
temporary: "Russia is much closer to us than America; the Russian and
Georgian cultures have been intertwined for centuries, and each is
unimaginable without the other. If we want to be happy we must find a
connection with Russia, and everybody understands this except Saakashvili.
We are so close to Russia. For America, we are only a small place where they
can put their military bases. After all, we're only 40 minutes away from
Iran."

</quotes>

It has to be agreed that there are good reasons for the US to have interest
in Georgia; strategicaly positioned to give it reach into the Middle East
and into Russia itself while supporting and promoting  'western democracy'
on Russia's doorstep is an ideological kick in the nuts. Saakashvili's
concept of 'democracy' was far from the western ideal, but as long as it
wasn't communism and Saakashvili was pro-US, America went along with it,
praising what they otherwise condemn in countries they don't support.

As always, the US goes where its own interests are best served for its own
cause, not in the interests of others who are mere pawns in American
gameplay.

The Happy Hippy wrote:

>  "He told me that
> he would go down in history, along with David the Builder, a medieval
> Georgian king. He's not David the Builder, he's Mikheil the Destroyer."

Come back, Vlad the Impaler - all is forgiven!

-- 
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