Georgia's Mikheil Saakashvili Faces the Vengeance of His Rivals

Mikheil Saakashvili

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Mikheil Saakashvili was once the centre of the world's attention for standing up to Russia, but as Georgia heads to the polls, he faces police questioning, the end of his political career and an uncertain future

For a few days at the height of summer in 2008, one of the youngest heads of state in the world stood at the epicentre of a grave international crisis.

President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, then aged just 40, was locked in a confrontation with Russia over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. He faced a full-scale invasion, with columns of Russian tanks moving down the highway towards to his capital, Tbilisi. For a moment, he became that rarest of politicians – a European leader waging a war on his own soil.

Last week, however, the man who once commanded the world's attention was moving out of the presidential residence and into a modest second floor flat in Tbilisi, the city he once pledged to defend against Russian invaders. As he stood amid a jumble of cardboard boxes in his old home, Mr Saakashvili might have reflected that at the age of 45, he has suffered comprehensive political defeat. » | Damien McElroy, Tbilisi | Saturday, October 26, 2013