"Everyone called me to congratulate...."

I still remember an outrage of Ukraninan public and condemnation of some European nations when president of Russia Valdimir Putin after 2004 famous presidential elections congratulated Viktor Yanukovish with his victory before the announcement of the official results by the CEC....



Four years passed....



Nothing has changed, only now leaders of "free and partly free and non-free countries" (according to the Freedom House Report 2007) try to congratulate a presidential candidate Mikheil Saakashvili with his victory at the recently conducted presidential elections. However, official results should be announced by CEC only on January 13...



So, Mikheil Saakashvili has been congratulated by...



PM and President of Ukraine Yuliya Timoshenko and Viktor Yushchenko

strategic partners like president of Turkey Abdullah Gul and president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev

President of France Nikola Sarkozy

President of Poland Lech Kaczynski

President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Mikheil Saakashvili was also congratulated by the leader of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who had sent him a telegram congratulating him on "a brilliant victory" in Georgia's presidential election but that Saakashvili's victory meant triumph for "an authoritarian regime." :))

Interesting that in a recent article published by International Herald Tribune (IHT) on January 8, Mikheil Saakashvili was named as a President of Georgia... "President Saakashvili says Georgia is on way to democracy" is the name of the article... Is he??

I am not surprised by these facts... Just read carefully the statement of the Assistant of Secretary of State Daniel Fried on December 28, 2007...

Georgia’s Presidential elections are upon us, so I want to offer a few observations on their importance for Georgia’s place in the world. In doing so, I would emphasize that Georgia’s strategic weight derives not principally from its geography, important though that is, but from the example Georgia can set as a thriving democracy, inspiring freedom throughout the region and beyond.

The International Community is doing all that it can to ensure that the January 5th election is free and fair. For Georgia’s own sake, and to demonstrate to the Euro- Atlantic family that Georgian democracy is on track after the recent setbacks, the January 5 election must be free and fair.

Georgia is very important in the Freedom and Democracy Agenda by the current Administration of the White House in Washington.. And it is extremely important to keep Georgia on the democratic track. Failure of Georgia would jeopardise the whole project... But it is very important in this case not to be blind... Otherwise "democracy agenda will prove to be just a part of the influence game"...