Ukraine Sends Ties & Running Shoes To Georgia Prez

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Saakashvili runs for his life


Saakashvili eats his tie! - (1 min into clip)

***********************************************************************
Ukraine opposition to send Georgian leader neckties to chew on
***********************************************************************

RIA Novosti
22/ 08/ 2008

http://en. rian. ru/world/20080822/116219864. html

KIEV, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's opposition party has pledged to send 365 neckties to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who was recently caught on camera nervously chewing his garment while discussing the Georgian-Russian conflict

Saakashvili has caused an internet sensation with his tie-chewing antics, captured during a phone conversation with a top Western official and aired by the BBC, and also over footage of him running in apparent terror after speaking to reporters, believing he was about to be attacked by Russian planes

Party of Regions lawmaker Boris Kolesnikov told a crowd of supporters in the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk: "We have already bought Saakashvili spiked running shoes, similar to those worn by the Jamaican sprinter who won the Olympic 100 meters.
We will also buy him 365 neckties, so that he will have enough to chew on every day of the year"

After the lawmaker's speech on the main square in Donetsk, the center of eastern Ukraine's coal mining industry, five heavy goods vehicles left the square carrying aid for children in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia, devastated by Georgia's August 8 military offensive

Although Ukraine's pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko has been vocal in his support for Saakashvili and his condemnation of Russia's large-scale retaliation to Georgia's offensive, his stance has not been backed my Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, once his closest ally

Earlier this week the president's office accused the premier of betraying national interests by refusing to speak out against Russia

Since the start of Russia's military peace enforcement operation, which has been resoundingly condemned by NATO, supporters of Georgia have held low-key rallies against the "Russian occupation" of Georgia near Kiev's Independence Square.
However, the protests have inspired little local support


''Hey Dubya send me a plane will ya?''

*******************************************************************************
Saakashvili asked the US to send him a plane in the heat of the conflict
*******************************************************************************

It turns out Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili planned to leave the country

Vladimir Vorsobin — 21082008

http://www. kp. ru/daily/24150. 4/366384/

The information barrier in Georgia has complicated the local population's ability to understand how the events truly unfolded in South Ossetia For over two weeks, the Georgian intelligence has maintained control over foreign news sources

All Russian sites and "enemy TV" have been blocked However, the government's official propaganda was dealt a serious blow yesterday when the country's only Russian-language newspaper Vecherniy Tbilisi published an interview with renowned political scientist Ramaz Klimiashvili

Klimiashvili said that "based on information from the presidential chancellery and governmental structures, Mikhail Saakashvili requested that a plane be sent in for him when the threat neared of Russian forces taking Tbilisi"

When the news began to spread, Klimiashvili writes, the opposition started to panic Despite their many differences, Saakashvili was maintaining control over the situation and "without him at the helm the country would sink into chaos"

The political scientist says Saakashvili wouldn't have launched a full-scale military operation without consent

"Was the really unaware that Russia would respond just like they did years back in Kosovo?" he asks.
"I don't exclude the possibility that to a large extent Bush was interested in seeing Russia's reaction — whether the country was ready to utilize the Kosovo option Russia was forced to act decisively to avoid looking helpless in the eyes of the Caucasus people"

Klimiashvili believes that little good will come of the South Ossetian war

"I don't doubt the August affairs may one day be seen as more of a catastrophe than Georgia's loss of Abkhazia in 1993," he said "We don't yet know what is really going on… If the US is involved here, then the guilt should be on the