Josh, Saakashvili succeeded because his message is what the Western media wants to hear and who is going to believe the Russians if they say different? It seems that western propaganda is just too engrained. I saw a BBC documentary about "Putins" Russia where school children in Russia are not taught what an evil country Russia is and how Stalin was as bad as Hitler. The funny thing is that that same reporter didn't ask similar questions about his own country... do British schools teach British children about the Opium trade in China, or the slave trade their nation supported or perhaps the actions of the British forces setting up concentration camps for Boers in South Africa, or indeed the genocide of lots of ethnic groups by the various European colonial powers. In fact many of the wars of the post WWII period blamed on communism often had their roots in colonialism. Much of the social unrest in many ex colonial places is because the money and power went primarily to one group and left the majority, normally natives poor and without land and or assets of any kind. When those poor majority rose up to get a better deal it was called communism to get a western power in to put it down.

Mr.Saakashvili plays the game that is based on post coldwar sentiments. Alot of Americans have hard time to understand the modern face of Russia. How is it possible that this little georgian dictator overcomes in his PR approach the giant country like Russia?