A Georgian Folly

I must say I was surprised by Fraser’s praise for Mikheil Saakashvili on Friday and his support for the stance taken by David Cameron and Liam Fox on matters Russian and Georgian. Surprised, because I’d thought Cameron’s dash to Tbilisi last year one of the more reckless moments of his leadership that demonstrated that, like John McCain, his judgement in foreign affairs was too often too open to accusations of rashness. 

Apart from anything else, as Carl Thomson ably demonstrates, Saakashvili is a poor poster boy for liberalism, even by the standards of the Caucasus. If Georgia is, in Fraser’s description, “a light of democratic freedom” it’s a light that shines pretty feebly.  Nor is it even obvious that Russia, for all its faults and for all that the Medvedev-Putin regime is obnoxious, actually started the war last summer. On the contrary, there’s every reason to suppose that it was Sakaashvili who miscalculated and launched needless, reckless provocation.