For some people who have never known “democracy,” when they are plunged into its quagmire, they are at the whim and mercy of marketing gurus and unscrupulous KGB manipulators without any recourse to a higher morality. Clearly it’s no accident that a 'prison scandal' broke just before the Georgian election—and only a fool would not point at Russia as the ultimate source of that scandal.

Unfortunately, it succeeded in collapsing Georgia’s fragile attempt at independence and nationhood. They will now follow in the footsteps of the Ukraine, and become a tool of Moscow once again. It’s no use fooling oneself—Russia has won that which it couldn’t win on the battlefield or otherwise, or by fair means. There will be no further fair elections in the Ukraine OR Georgia, Russia will see to that. The election model will be Belarus and Russia. The Ukraine fell back in Russia’s sphere thanks to destructive squabbling between a power hungry Tymoshenko and a weakened Yushchenko—which let in Yanukovych as a puppet with real power in the hands of the Russian Azarov.

I wish there were better news. Of one thing everyone can be certain, Ivanishvili will never be speaking the truth. Like a Muslim or a Russian, he will lie through his teeth.