The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/world/europe/14saaka.html?pagewanted=a
ll

August 14, 2008
Rejuvenated Georgian President Cites U.S. Ties as 'Turning Point' in
Conflict
By C.J. CHIVERS and NICHOLAS KULISH

TBILISI, Georgia - On Monday, President Mikheil Saakashvili, his army in
retreat and his Western allies still surprised by the intensity of the
Russian attack, was the very picture of vulnerability, dodging Russian
military jets.

By Wednesday he seemed an almost preternaturally reinvigorated man, once
again raising the temperature in Georgia's bitter disagreements with
Russia, and invoking special ties with American democracy and freedom.

Moments after President Bush appeared at the Rose Garden to say that the
Pentagon would begin a humanitarian aid mission to support Georgia, Mr.
Saakashvili was on the phone with a Western reporter, talking fast.
"This is a turning point," he said. Soon he appeared on national
television, his tousled hair combed back flat and wearing a freshly
pressed suit, assuring his country that the worst had passed.

No matter that Russian troops were 30 miles away, milling on the road
outside the capital, meeting no resistance. Mr. Saakashvili was in cocky
form in an interview later in the evening with reporters, expounding on
Nazi propaganda, Orwell and the film "Dr. Strangelove."

"Russians should see that this is not a demoralized, you know, nervous
panicking capital that is just scared," he said. "Shops are open. There
are no lines for gas stations. Prices are not up."

He added, "We will fight to the end, until the last Russian soldier
leaves Georgian soil and this country is not going to be brought to the
knees anymore. We are not surrendering, no matter what."

Mr. Saakashvili's latest show of bravado came only a day after Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice said that she and a special State Department
envoy had explicitly and repeatedly warned him not to take any military
action against Georgian separatists that might provoke Russia,
cautioning that the United States was not prepared to back him
militarily if he did. He also appeared to exaggerate the Pentagon's
planned relief operation, making it seem larger and further developed
than it was.

"We already saw U.S. Air Force landing in Georgia despite Russians
controlling the airspace," he said, after a C-17 had touched down. "And
we will see U.S. military ships entering Georgian ports despite Russians
blocking it. That we will see." He added, "These will be serious
military ships."

But the American military said that although the Navy had been ordered
to assist in the humanitarian mission, it had not yet formed its plans
and no ships were en route.

Mr. Saakashvili's confidence, along with his swing of mood and perhaps
Georgia's momentary change of fortune, also belied a complicated
political situation for him at home. After what American officials had
characterized as his profound miscalculation last week in ordering an
attack on the separatist enclave of South Ossetia, triggering the
largest Russian military activity over its borders since the Soviet war
in Afghanistan, his political standing was in question.

A pair of mass rallies on Tuesday made clear that he still had domestic
support, bolstered in part by anger at Russia. But there were also signs
that as civilian casualties and the number of refugees mounted, many
Georgians doubted the wisdom of his policy of so boldly defying, even
provoking, the Russian bear.

Iza Metreveli, who sat at her son's wake on Tuesday, raged against her
government for starting a war she said never should have been waged. A
Russian bomb had killed her son, Mamuka Katsadze, a dock worker at the
commercial port of Poti on the Black Sea. Earlier that day, Mr. Katsadze
had learned that his wife was pregnant with a baby boy. Nine other
workers died.

"For the mothers of those killed, everything is finished," Ms. Metreveli
said through her tears. "What do I need a country that kills its
citizens for?"

Several American officials, and Mr. Saakashvili himself, have said that
one of Russia's goals in the war was the outright removal of Mr.
Saakashvili, in part by creating these kinds of pressures. But thus far,
some Georgians said, the perception that he is a Russian target has
helped him with the Georgian public, placing national unity over
political infighting. "Maybe that will happen in a couple weeks," said
Gigi Tevzadze, president of Ilia Chavchavadze State University in
Tbilisi, speaking about political recriminations. "Now, the situation is
that the people are strongly supporting the government. The solidarity
in Georgian society is quite high."

Such sentiments had been visible on Tuesday, when thousands of Georgians
waved flags, sang and shouted themselves hoarse. It was an ecstatic
release of energy after the tension of the war's first days.
Participants said it was also meant as a sign to the Russians. "We
Georgians will never fight against each other," said Lado Zabakhidze,
25, a Tbilisi resident out with friends waving red-and-white Georgian
flags on the city's main boulevard. "We will never be afraid. We will
never go down on our knees."

But after the rallies ended, and with Russian forces moving freely on
the road between Gori and the capital, there were signs of discontent
with Mr. Saakashvili.

Ungala Akhalshenishvili, 23, who works at a cellphone company in
Tbilisi, said her opinion of him had fallen over the course of the
crisis. The president seemed to be playing the part of a man eager to
fight, only to need a rescue from more muscular friends.

"He has always tried to put a good face on what has happened," she said.
"But yesterday when I saw him he looked frightened and he seemed like he
was waiting for France to come in and solve his problems."

Mr. Saakashvili has survived plunges in popularity in the past.

Last fall, he deployed riot police with tear gas, rubber bullets and
batons against unarmed demonstrators. He also used his police to destroy
an opposition television station, which went off the air as masked
officers stormed it. His critics say that while he is an unwavering
American ally, his record as a democrat was long ago checkered.

For his part, Mr. Saakashvili was characteristically undeterred. He was
asked Wednesday night whether if he could turn back the clock to late
last week, when he said he received signs of Russian troops moving to
the border, he would order an attack again.

"Absolutely," he said, and couched the answer in terms of his own
political survival. "We have an obligation to react to it. Any Georgian
government that wouldn't have reacted to it would have fallen
instantly."

Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting from Poti, Georgia, and Thom
Shanker from Washington.