Posted on July 21, 2009 - by Venik

Saakashvili’s War

Entirely in line with his suspected drug abuse problem, Saakashvili is now waging war of words on the Wall Street Journal. In Georgia’s President Vows Changes (by Andrew Osborn, WSJ 2009-07-20) the following quote appeared:

“He also called the hopes of Georgia joining NATO “almost dead.” “It’s tragic,” he said. “It means the Russians fought for the right reasons.”

This statement was quickly picked up by Russian and Georgian press that interpreted it in the obvious way: Saakashvili no longer believes Georgia has a hope of joining NATO. Not that anyone seriously thought otherwise, but it was interesting to hear this admission come directly from the man who made Georgia’s NATO membership his primary election promise.

Saakashvili, his administration and loyal members of the Parliament reacted angrily, blaming… the Russian media for “spreading idiocy”. Saakashvili also blamed the Wall Street Journal for incorrectly interpreting his words. Clearly, this was not a point lost in translation, since Saakashvili gave the interview in English, in which he is fluent. I also doubt that Andrew Osborne – however much I dislike his reporting – could have misinterpreted Saakashvili’s words so profoundly. Georgia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria called the interview a “publisher’s mistake”.

Saakashvili earned his place in Russian popular culture, but not in the way he hoped. Here is the cover from the “Forcing Peace” strategy game by Red Ice Software, where Saakashvili is famously chewing on his staple red silk tie, like he did during his appearance on BBC.

Shortly thereafter Saakashvili came under fire in the Parliament from his supporters – Georgian hardliner nationalists still hopeful to one day join NATO and show the Kremlin who’s the boss – who accused him of going soft. Saakashvili announced that he received an apology from the Wall Street Journal for misinterpreting his words.

If there is one thing the Russian media learned about dealing with Saakashvili, it’s that his every word needs to be double checked. And so the RIA Novosti news agency contacted WSJ’s parent company Dow Jones and was told by its representative Kate Dobbin that the WSJ does not believe it made any mistakes in the interview and did not issue any apologies to Saakashvili. It did, however, print a “clarification”. The quote above was reformatted in the following manner:

“Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said his country’s hopes of joining NATO are “almost dead. It’s tragic. If they manage to kill NATO, it means the Russians fought for the right reasons.”

Apparently, this is the best Saakashvili could get from the Wall Street Journal. The words are the same, the meaning is identical. Just some punctuation changes. The man just doesn’t know when to shut up: after being embarrassed he seems to have an uncontrollable urge to keep talking.

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