Posted on 09/29/2013 2:42:38 PM PDT by annalex
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| President Saakashvili addresses UN General Assembly, September 25, 2013. |
In his address to the UN General Assembly on September 25, Georgia’s outgoing President Mikheil Saakashvili lashed out at Russia for mounting “constant pressures and threats” on neighbors and said that “the last authoritarian empire in the world” will fail and its leader Vladimir Putin will vanish from the Russian politics in “few years from now.”
In his speech Saakashvili, whose second and final presidential term nears its end, also mentioned his tenure saying that “many good things” have been done under his leadership, but also added that “some of these things were done at a very high cost.”
“It makes me sick when KGB officer Vladimir Putin lectures the world about freedom, values and democracy,” Saakashvili said. “But this new project [the Eurasian Union] is much more dangerous than his lectures.”
“The Eurasian Union has been shaped as an alternative to the European Union and unveiled by Vladimir Putin as the main project of his new presidency – the new Russian empire,” Saakashvili said in his 30-minute speech.
Russian representatives were listening to Saakashvili’s address for first twenty minutes and then walked out of the General Assembly hall.
Russia’s UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, slammed Saakashvili’s speech as “Russophobic” and said, according to the Russian state-run English-language channel Russia Today: “Luckily for Georgian people, this man – whose mental state needs a professional expertise – is in the twilight of his political career.”
Russia was of the main topics in Saakashvili’s all of the previous nine UN speeches since becoming the Georgian President in 2004. But while in his first two addresses to the UN General Assembly in 2004 and 2005 he was speaking mainly on the need of cooperation, rhetoric was toning up in following years as relations between the two countries were getting worse.
“I was never a great fan of what the French call la langue de bois [wooden language], but as my second term nears its end, I feel more than before the urge to speak my mind,” he said in the address on September 25, which was his lengthiest one than any of his previous UN speeches.
When speaking about the Eurasian Union, he also made an apparent reference to recent remarks by PM Ivanishvili, who said that EU and NATO integration is “cornerstone” of Georgia’s foreign policy and also added that the government was watching and “studying” the Eurasian Union initiative. “If in perspective we see that it is interesting for the strategy of our country, then why not,” Ivanishvili said.
Saakashvili said: Because European and Euro-Atlantic integration take a lot of time and… because there are moments when you might think you are pursuing a mirage… some people in our region might fall victim to fatigue and ask themselves: why not?”
He said that Kremlin’s “mouthpieces”, which he also described as “conscious or unconscious 5th column” identify the EU with “the destruction of family values, the erosion of national traditions and the promotion of gays and lesbians.”
“Strangely, in recent years and even more in recent months, we hear in Tbilisi, Kiev, or Chisinau the same ugly music that was first orchestrated in Moscow that our traditions are collapsing under the influence of the West, that Christian holidays will be replaced by gay pride events, and Churches by multicultural Disney Lands,” Saakashvili said.
Saakashvili also said that “the Russian project is doomed to fail.”
“Few years from now – you will recall my words – Vladimir Putin will have left the Kremlin and vanished from the Russian politics, even if he says that he will be there for another twenty years,” he said. “Russian citizens will remember him as a ghost from the old times – the times of corruption and oppression.”
Saakashvili said that the “hostility” of Putin towards his government “was not based on personal hatreds.”
“Do you think the Kremlin would agree to discuss the de-occupation of our regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, now that the government has changed in Tbilisi? Far from it,” he said. “Despite the friendly statements made by the new Georgian government in the recent weeks and months, the Russian military keep advancing positions, dividing communities with new barbwires.”
‘Cut Corners, Radical Methods and Mistakes’
In his speech, Saakashvili also spoke briefly about his presidential tenure and said that he takes pride in “many accomplishments” that Georgia achieved since 2004.
“We did many good things. When I became the President at that moment I was the youngest president in the world,” he said. “I realize that some of these things were done at a very high cost. In our rush to impose a new reality, against the background of internal and external threats, we have cut comers and certainly made mistakes.”
“We went sometimes too far and other times not far enough. I acknowledge fully my responsibility in all these shortcomings and I sincerely care for all those who have felt that they did not benefit enough from our work or even that they were victims of our radical methods.”
“I want to tell to all Georgian citizens – to those who supported our project, our policies and our party and to those who rejected them – I want to tell them how proud I am of their maturity and their bravery, how humble I feel looking at the sacrifices and the efforts they have made,” he said.
bump
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How much is Soros paying him?
I wonder how much Uncle Sam is paying him. Cui Bono?
This would get more consideration from a leader who didn’t shell the sleeping citizens of South Ossetia in their apartments.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia don’t want to be part of Georgia, so he has had a great opportunity to show the kind of restraint and understanding he wants Putin to have.
It takes a lot of nerve to say that when you consider the fact that it was Russia who was the aggressor, and continues to be the aggressor. Witness Russia’s continuing encroachment on Georgian land that is clearly outside of South Ossetia.
I would be interested in hearing your comments about this article:
Kinda like sayin’ S. California wants to be a part of Mexico. Who are we to argue, right?
Georgia's outgoing President Mikheil Saakashvili lashed out at Russia for mounting "constant pressures and threats" on neighbors and said that “the last authoritarian empire in the world" will fail and its leader Vladimir Putin will vanish from the Russian politics in "few years from now." In his speech Saakashvili, whose second and final presidential term nears its end, also mentioned his tenure saying that "many good things" have been done under his leadership, but also added that "some of these things were done at a very high cost... It makes me sick when KGB officer Vladimir Putin lectures the world about freedom, values and democracy," Saakashvili said. "But this new project [the Eurasian Union] is much more dangerous than his lectures. The Eurasian Union has been shaped as an alternative to the European Union and unveiled by Vladimir Putin as the main project of his new presidency -- the new Russian empire," Saakashvili said in his 30-minute speech. Russian representatives were listening to Saakashvili’s address for first twenty minutes and then walked out of the General Assembly hall.
Please include me. Thanks
This punk is yesterday's news.
Saakashvili is a thug and a dictator falsely advertised as a freedom fighter.
Learn a little bit about Georgia apart from that is said in media.
It is practically a police state, those disagree with a president are routinely jailed and their assets confiscated.
Pro-Western choice is nice but it makes as much sense as a pro-Soviet choice in Cuba. As for 2008 about 20% of Georgian population were working in Russia illegally. And Georgian economy has little capability to generate revenues apart from trading with Russia. Until just recently it was replaced by direct US aid but this aid hasn’t improved a thing being exclusively used for military and to build luxury government offices, remodel central streets in a cities and other Potemkin village stuff.
Saakashvili is a lame duck and he knows it. He has taunted so-called pro-Western choice by himself.
“It takes a lot of nerve to say that when you consider the fact that it was Russia who was the aggressor”
Not really, because Russia wasn’t the aggressor.
Regarding the article you linked, Russia being on the right in defending South Ossetia from Georgian attack, doesn’t make Russia always on the right side, any more than Georgia losing in war gives it the modern benefits of eternal victim status. The article is written by someone who sounds like he has a Georgian name and loyalties, and just reading it without knowing his name it would be hard to conclude he doesn’t at least have the latter. It’s not an objective bit of news analysis. He doesn’t mention any official Russian position even to juxtapose it with the official Georgian position. Instead he spends a good deal of time dealing with ideologue Dugin, who has no place in Russian officialdom, as far as I can discover, no more than Rush Limbaugh has a place in American officialdom. This leads to mention of Adjara, which did try to break away a while back, but since then can’t really be put in the same category as South Ossetia or Abkhazia. It’s part fantasy, part reality, and it’s left to the reader to discern which predominates.
“Kinda like sayin’ S. California wants to be a part of Mexico.”
Not really. It would be more like the Falkland Islands wanting to remain British, if any comparison could be made.
I wonder why noone takes Ossetians into consideration. This isn’t a ‘Georgia vs Russia’ thing, there is the third party.
I believe we need to reserve our opinions about Georgia. The people are lovely and the landscape and history is heart-breakingly beautiful but there is a dark thread running through it. When I read ‘The red tsar’ and saw the number of Stalin’s inner circle who were Georgians it made me wonder...
Golden words. The article is not about Georgia; I agree that there is a Neo-con project of dubious value going on there. The article is about the curious fact that Putin has somehow weaseled himself into a position of moral authority. The root of the problem is, I think, a certain Nobel Peace laureate, and his accomplices in the GOP who allowed this to happen.
While it is easy to detest the European Union, the USSR 2.0 that Putin is building -- in Asia -- is a sign of a strategic alliance between Russia and China, which is another colossal foreign policy mistake of the recent US administrations. It should not have been allowed to happen.
>>>Golden words. The article is not about Georgia; I agree that there is a Neo-con project of dubious value going on there. The article is about the curious fact that Putin has somehow weaseled himself into a position of moral authority. The root of the problem is, I think, a certain Nobel Peace laureate, and his accomplices in the GOP who allowed this to happen.<<<
Maybe the problem is a certain Nobel Peace winner and McCain are more evil than a KGB agent? Is it Putin’s fault if he makes more sense on so many issues?
And as for a Russian-Chinese alliance I don’t think you are right. It won’t ever happen. They have divorced circa 1956 when Khruschev has called Stalin and Mao bloody killers and they won’t ever come really close ever since.
In fact right now US is the most important ally of Red China. The war in Afghanistan is particularly fought in a Chinese interest.
No, of course not. He is seeing a vacuum of moral authority and he is exploiting it.
How is war in Afghanistan in Chinese interest? Why what Kruschev said in 1956 still a factor, but our own views on China prior to 1972 not a factor?
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