By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 7, 2006; A11
Mikheil Saakashvili, president of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, warned yesterday that Russia is trying to undermine his government in hopes of intimidating democracy activists from rising up against corrupt regimes like the one he toppled three years ago.
Saakashvili, an American-trained lawyer who led the Rose Revolution in Georgia and inspired two other "color revolutions" in the region, complained that Moscow has employed hard-nosed tactics aimed at starving his tiny mountain nation economically and breaking it up physically. If it succeeds, he said, it would chill the spread of democracy far beyond his borders.
"It will mean revolutions don't work and everyone ought to calm down . . . that color revolutions are bad and no one should follow their example," he told editors and reporters at The Washington Post.
He added: "From our perspective, any kind of setback would be a real disaster, a real disaster. If Georgia fails, it will not be that my government fails. . . . It means the whole idea of the democracy agenda, which is so precious to us, is in real trouble."
Russia, he said, has tried to destabilize Georgia by restricting imports of Georgian wine, vegetables and mineral water -- all critical to the nation's economy -- while encouraging separatists in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Saakashvili wrapped up a visit to Washington highlighted by two hours of meetings at the White House, including an Oval Office session with President Bush, who publicly called the Georgian "my friend" and promised to "make the path a little smoother for Georgia" to join NATO over Russian objections. Saakashvili also met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other officials.
The high-profile round of meetings was seen as a signal of U.S. solidarity with Russia's neighbors in the face of pressure from Moscow barely a week before Bush heads to St. Petersburg for the summit of the Group of Eight nations. The White House wanted a way to demonstrate concern over Russian President Vladimir Putin's direction before the summit, after a trip to Ukraine fell apart because a political struggle there has kept a new government from forming.
Saakashvili filled in as a useful symbol, a model for Bush's campaign to promote democracy. After the Rose Revolution, Saakashvili was elected president and proceeded to energetically remake his nation of 4.7 million people. He replaced the police force, known for extracting bribes from motorists, prosecuted corrupt officials and increased pensions and government salaries. He also eliminated many business licenses; built new roads, hospitals and schools; and improved tax collection so much that the government's budget has grown nearly tenfold.
"It's changing, but not changing as quickly as I'd like," said Saakashvili, 38, who has brought in as an adviser former Estonian prime minister Mart Laar. Laar had turned around his former Soviet republic, which is now a member of NATO and the European Union. "We really are becoming a real, full-fledged democracy. We're there -- almost."
Saakashvili's zealous campaign against corruption, though, has prompted criticism that he is going too far. In a letter to Bush last week, Human Rights Watch complained about Georgia "backsliding on many of its human rights commitments," particularly regarding prison conditions, attacks on judicial independence and the use of lethal force by police. Twenty-one suspects were killed by authorities in 2005 and 17 in the first four months of this year, the group said.
"Georgia's democratic gains remain fragile, and what we are seeing today are the warning signs of significant regression," the group wrote. "If this trend continues, Georgia will no longer be a positive example to others."
In the interview, Saakashvili acknowledged the problems, but he called them the byproducts of trying to tame a country that he compared to a Mafia-run Sicily. He has instituted a "zero-tolerance" policy for corruption and even petty crimes. "We couldn't be soft on crime," he said. "Now, some of the people might not like some of the methods, and I acknowledge it."
Lethal force by law enforcement is a problem, he said, but criminals have killed twice as many police officers. He has fired judges, he said, but many of them are corrupt. "It takes punishing them to educate them sometimes," he said.
