[freddie]

I'll just answer to parts that aren't plain bickering. :P

Originally Posted by Argos

a) I'm not talking about events immediately before, during and after the November elections, but the months before. As a military partner Shevardnadze was a very reliable one. In 2002 Georgia got about 55 Mio $ from the Foreign Military Financing Program, more than 10 times more than the year before (9/11 you know)
b) It wasn't accumulation of power, it was just plain unbearable corruption. Georgia at that time was one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

You were the one making references to Wikipedia articles, so read up the selective parts that don't agree with your assertions as well. Like the part where it's stated Americans eventually got tired of pouring money into a black hole.
You can't have "unbearable corruption" without your own people maintaining control over the whole whole political & social spectrum of the country. Just like Zimbabwe. Tripartite organization of the government is intended for that purpose exactly - different branches of the government controling each other. State-wide corruption can only be achieved once you've taken control of all three of these branches..

Originally Posted by Argos

Saaki is mentally disturbed, and this was written in a lot of W-E-S-T-E-R-N articles two years ago in the net, no reason for understatements.

Please show me links stating he's mentally disturbed. Even if you find three I can counter it with overwhelmingly favourable common-opinion articles about his reign so far. He might be ineffective in some areas, some of his reforms failed to meet their targets, but that could be said for any polititian in history. But he is definitely the lesser of two evil, and a wonderful counter-balance to Russia's oil-fueled apetites to become a superpower again.

It was always the co-operation of Saaki, Zhvania and Burdzhanadze together which made this little wonder possible, which made Georgia's government reliable and capable of acting, not the president alone. But Zhvania died under very mysterious circumstances in Feb 2005, and Burdzhanadze threw the towel in April this year. The moderate forces in the government have gone, and now little Misha can't be stopped. Condi must be really furious, if we believe (NYT) that she has warned him from attacking at least two times this month.

I seriously don't know what you've been reading. On her visit Condolenzza Rice only expressed her concern regarding the separatist issues in the country, saying it has to be resolved with Russia, while still extending her - and administration's - full support of the government. USA being concerned over seperatist movements inside one of it's allies is really not that hard to understand though.

Originally Posted by Argos

I can agree, but I would have sworn too that a man of the integrity of Colin Powell would never lie to the UN Security Council and present a bunch of fake proofs about Iraqi nuke weapons. Since then I don't exclude anything...

When he said it he actually believed it, but that's a seperate issue.

Originally Posted by Argos

You see, Misha did! But wait! No! It was one of his doctors, a psychologist and FSB double (or triple, whatever) agent, who hypnotized him: "Destroy Tskhinvali...Destroy Tskhinvali...Destroy Tskhinvali...Destroy Tskhinvali...Destroy Tskhinvali...!" Yeah, that's it. There's no other possibility.

So... what ARE his motives then? Russian motives are clear to see, Ossetians just as well, but I don't see that Georgia would stand to gain by risking direct conflict with a military powerhouse like Russia.