"My country is supposed to be a total failure": Georgian president reflects on "third way" approach in Russia's shadow

While in the United States for the NATO Summit in Chicago, President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili made a brief stop in Princeton to offer his thoughts on Georgian reform and progress in spite of an antagonistic relationship with Russia. He spoke at a packed lecture on Thursday.

“When the U.S. government asked Russia in 2008 what their plans were with Georgia, Russia responded, ‘Full annihilation — complete annihilation of the country.’ Not of the government, but of the country,” Saakashvili said.

During his lecture, titled “Georgian Democratic Transformation: A Test Case for the Post-Soviet World,” Saakashvili addressed the advancements Georgia is making to solidify its status as a democratic nation in spite of hostility from the Russian government.

An already-tense relationship with Russia deteriorated into war following Saakashvili’s 2008 deployment of troops to reclaim South Ossetia from separatists. Russia intervened and seized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two Georgian territories, sparking the 2008 South Ossetia War or Russo-Georgian war. Relations with Russia have only worsened since then.

“Medvedev has said, ‘Who is Saakashvili? He’s a political cadaver,’ ” Saakashvili said of the current Russian prime minister and former president.

In spite of pressure from Russia, Saakashvili said that Georgia is continuing on its path toward reform. He cited Georgia’s “radical transformation” as proof of its anomalous nature.

“My country is supposed to be a total failure. Georgia was one of the most corrupt places in the world,” Saakashvili said.

A series of government reforms and civil advancements adopted by Saakashvili’s administration have since changed Georgia’s story into what he called a “survival story.”

Georgia is the second most transparent country, after New Zealand, and its advancements have lowered the crime rate, according to Saakashvili, who added that the country now has the lowest in Europe according to the European Union. He called Georgia a “gateway country,” which, as a result of its position as a bridge between Europe and Asia, could show other countries how to learn from Georgian reform.

“Before, there were two choices: to be messy, chaotic, corruption-crippled like Russia under Boris Yeltsin or to be more orderly, authoritarian like Russia under Putin. There was no other choice. Georgia shows the third way with freedom of elections and freedom of civil society,” Saakashvili said.

For a country once dismissed as “doomed to be old-fashioned,” Georgia’s capability for success and change are aspects of Saakashvili’s “message of hope,” he said.

“Ideas can sometimes be stronger than tanks or even money,” he added.

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Saakashvili ended his lecture with a brief Q-and-A session. His talk, held in Dodds Auditorium, was co-sponsored by the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination and the Wilson School.