The US-Georgia Charter is not a Mutual Defence Pact. But It Draws Red Line for Russia.

Deepening Georgia’s integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions is a mutual priority, and we plan to undertake a program of enhanced security cooperation intended to increase Georgian capabilities and to strengthen Georgia’s candidacy for NATO membership.

Georgia's United Nations envoy Irakli Alasania has become the latest potential player in the country's ever-changing gallery of opposition leaders, following the December 8 announcement of a coalition between two centrist parties.

As Georgia marks the fifth anniversary of the Rose Revolution the mood is somber and the celebrations of past years are conspicuously absent. This is understandable. The revolution has lost a lot of its luster and Georgians are in a funk.

Barack Obama's election may have prompted celebrations from Chicago to Nairobi. But in Tbilisi, it was disappointment that carried the day, with many Georgians ruefully contemplating what John McCain's defeat would mean for them.

GHIA NODIA

Frequent changes of Prime Ministers are good for the opposition members. They can criticize the authorities more actively, talk about the instability in the country, but they do not care who will be the next Prime Minister.

VIKTOR KREMENIUK

The rivalry between Moscow and Washington regarding the post-Soviet space will be still urgent under President Obama, but it won’t be crucial as it was under the previous Administration. A certain compromise is possible to achieve.

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

It is difficult to forecast how diligently the Administration of President Barack Obama will follow the above-mentioned articles of the Charter. But there is a high probability (taking into consideration the increased tension in the Russia-U.S. relations) that Russia would consider the Charter as a challenge to its interests in South Caucasus.

ARCHIL GEGESHIDZE

The year 2008 was the most eventful in the entire history of independent Georgia. It started with the January presidential election: it was held against a background of the mass protest marches in November 2007. 

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

For the first time, Georgia has not celebrated the anniversary of the Rose Revolution in a traditional pompous way and the authorities have not boasted about their successes as they had done annually on 23 November since 2003.

VADIM KARASYOV

Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” was neither socialist, nor social. It aimed first of all at destroying the post-Soviet corruption political system and establishing then a more democratic one. Nowadays, one year later, there can be numbered several achievements of the “Orange Revolution”.