Mr. Zhvania's death has ruined that balance of power. Ms. Burdzhanadze has many times spoken of the close attention paid to each other in the leaders' troika, adopting only coordinated decisions. Now, everything has changed. The new premier is a man whose personal qualities Ms. Burdzhanadze disliked, which she has many times mentioned in public. By appointing former Finance Minister Zurab Nogaideli as the new premier, Mr. Saakashvili has an extremely unpleasant surprise for her.
This decision, minding that her private conversation with the president regarding the matter was held only recently, has "discouraged" Ms. Burdzhanadze, as she herself has said. In other words, the manner of Georgian arithmetics has changed: three minus one equals not two but only one, Mikhail Saakashvili. It was predictable, at least from the recent conclusions drawn by EU experts who, after visiting Georgia, said that in the post-"rose revolution" country, democracy does not appear so "rosy", to put it mildly.
Since Mr. Zhvania and Ms. Burdzhanadze were pragmatists and "brakes" in the former troika and Mr. Saakashvili played the role of ardent champion and political bulldozer, it turns out that with Mr. Zhvania's death and the obvious "wounding" of the parliamentary speaker, the "political bulldozer" has been actually left brakeless.
Against this background, the choice of the new premier assumes a different complexion. You may recall that Ms. Burdzhanadze's main objection against Mr. Nogaideli was that he is too straightforward and tough. Obviously, Mr. Saakashvili has begun forming a new team to suit his own taste, where loyalty and toughness rank more than pragmatism.
As is known, the personal qualities of a politician have more than once been decisive. You may recall that in its time the collective Bolshevist mind wiped out about the same reasons and doubts, which Nino Burdzhanadze voices today, with regard to Joseph Dzhugashvili (Stalin). As a result, the world was faced with Stalinism.
If Ms. Burdzhanadze has at least something of Cassandra's qualities, the best of times are not in store for Georgia. The new Saakashvili team, hammered out on the basis of personal devotion and capacity to carry out even cruel decisions, is hardly what the West has expected of the charming, smiling leader.
