Kvarcheliya: Saakashvili's policy takes Georgia away from democracy

In the opinion of political scientist Liana Kvarcheliya, employee of Abkhasian Centre of Humanitarian Programs (CHP), the policy of Mikhail Saakashvili, the current Georgian president, is methodically and consistently taking the country away from democracy. Mrs. Kvarcheliya has shared her opinion with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent:

"The myth of Georgia being about the only successful example of a new democracy, created by Americans, was most violently destroyed on November 2. The social and economic problems accumulated in Georgia and the inability of the regime, despite an unprecedented external assistance, to efficiently resolve such problems could not but cause a response of the Georgian society." In her opinion, the novelty was the fact that "this time Mikhail Saakashvili has failed to distract attention of discontented people by resorting to the topic of "external threat" which bores everyone to death.

"The fact that virtually all human rights organizations in the country have joined political opposition to the ruling regime should have given a serious indication to the world community. However, the official West, primarily the USA, has been trying to maintain a more or less good face on things up to the recent events," says Kvarcheliya.

In addition, she claims that "the most pro-Western oppositionists represented by the Republican Party and Salome Zurabishvili, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, are among the protesters." "It would be very difficult to suspect them of a deal with Russia," concludes Liana Kvarcheliya.