'Russia Should Follow Georgia's Lead'

The world is divided between those who admire Georgian President Saakashvili's valiant attempts to bring democracy to his country and those who believe that he almost brought the world to the brink of war with Russia over the summer. Last week, Saakashvili attended the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and explained his position to NEWSWEEK's Lally Weymouth. Excerpts:

WEYMOUTH: Do you think you miscalculated over the summer when you fired on Russian troops in South Ossetia?
SAAKASHVILI: No, I think since last November the attack was in the making by the Russians. That's when they started the real military buildup. We warned Europe and the West that a Russian attack was foreseeable sometime in early fall.

A lot of Americans are apprehensive about getting into a fight with Russia.
We never wanted to draw America [into a conflict]. What we wanted to do was to enroll America and Europe in trying to avoid it.

How do you plan to work out your relationship with Russia now?
I think the main thing we should do now is to show nationalistic elements in the Kremlin that their two strategic goals of deposing the Georgian government and taking over the energy resources from the Central Asian [region] are not going to work. We can never outmeasure Russia in terms of military equipment, but we certainly can compete with them in terms of principles, our economic and political systems and show them the advantage of freedom and democracy.

Georgia can be a successful model of democracy?
Absolutely ...

Until this war happened, I heard many liberal-minded Russians say that Russia should emulate Georgia's economic model and Georgia's fight with corruption … Ultimately, it is not Georgia that should surrender to Russia. It is Russia that should follow Georgia's and other democracies' leads in liberalizing and opening up its economy.

You think they have backed off?
They backed off from their two strategic goals: deposing us and cutting off energy supplies for Europe.