RAINY DAYS in GEORGIA Ed U a R D Shevard N a Dze Is a Wes T Ern Hero

LETTER FROM TBILISI RAINY DAYS IN GEORGIA Ed u a r d Shevard n a dze is a Wes t ern hero. Wha t ’s gone wrong in his own country?

BY MICHAEL SPECTER

ate on the afte rn o o n of August 29, muc h of what Shev a rd n a d z e promi s e d L19 9 5 ,E d u a r d A.Shev a rd n a d z e,th e has come to pass.Ter ro r ism is no long e r Georgian head of st a t e , walked out of a daily threa t . Par liament is run not by the Par liament Building, in the cap i t a l thugs but by a thirty - s eve n - ye a r - o l d ci t y of Tb i l i s i , and climbed into the back de m o c r at named Zur ab Zhvania, wh o seat of his car for a long-awaited rid e . made his mark as an envi r onmental ac- He was about to sign a document that ti v i s t . Wha t ’s more, Shev a rd n a d z e has he had thought he might never see: a fa s h i o ned a lucrat i v e deal with the Wes t de m o c r atic cons t i t u t i o n for his country. to send oil from the Caspian Sea acros s Georgia had become an independent Georgian territ o r y, tu r ning the country na t i o n just four years earli e r , with the into a station along a new Silk Road. To co l lapse of the Soviet Union; since then, a ch i eve this success, Sh ev a rdn a d ze it had endured a civil war (over the dr ew on the full and often cont ra d i c t o r y se p a r atist reg i o n of Abkhazia) and two arsenal of his political talents: he was other serious upri s i n g s . The nation’s p ragmatic enough to negotiate with ec on o my had virtu a l ly colla p s e d , vi o - ki l lers and ruthless enough to side with lence was widesprea d , and rel a t i o ns with the most successful among them. Russia were poisono u s . Georgia today is a more tra n q u i l Yet by that summer Georgians had place than it was on that summer day begun to hope for better times. Th e when the bomb went off—in no small st r eet fighting had ebbed, fa r mers were pa r t because the country is, in a sense, a wo r king again, and Russia seemed to hi g h l y dependent duchy of the United be leaving its neighbor alone . Most of Sta t e s . Ame ri c an leaders, for both prac - that prog r ess was due to Shev a rd n a d z e, t i cal and sentimental re a s on s , reve re who by force of wi ll , coupled with an Sh ev a rd n a d ze . Last yea r , the United un ca n n y ability to find consensus even States provided nearly a hundred and am o ng people who seemed to detest fifty mill i on dollars in aid, almost a one another, gove rned Georgia then t h i rd of the Georgian budget. Over as he gover ns it today: de c i s i ve l y and the past decad e , onl y Israel has reg u - a l on e . la r ly rec e i v ed significan t l y more mone y The con s t i t u t i on cere m ony was per person from Was h i n g t on . De s p i t e s cheduled to begin at 7 P.M. But as Ge o r g i a ’s efforts to establish a democ- Shev a rd n a d z e’s car made its way from rac y, in other respects its prog r ess has the Par liament Building,a man perche d been slight: tax revenues are anemic; in a nearby apartment block detonated and last year Tra n s p a re n cy Intern a- a rem o t e - c on t r ol bomb that set the ve- t i on a l , an independent monitor of hi c le on fire, sending shards of gl a s s i n t e rn a t i onal ethics, placed Georgia th r ough the air.Shev a rd n a d z e stumbled e i g h ty - fifth out of a hundred on its into the stree t , stunned and bleeding. list of the world ’s most corrupt coun- That night,Georgians watched on tele- tri e s . Nea r ly ever ything that should be vi s i o n as he spoke from the hospital.Hi s ea r ned in a free society through merit face cover ed with cuts, Shev a rd n a d z e is blatantly for sale, fr om college diplo- st a r ed vacan t l y at the cam e r a and told mas and drive r s ’ licenses to the right the nation, “Th e y want the Mafia to to vote. run this country. Th e y will not succeed. Not long ago, I asked former Sec r e- This is the last act of te r ro r ism in Geor- ta r y of State James A. Baker III why gi a . The whole nation will rise and raz e Ge o r g i a , with five milli o n people, was them to the grou n d . ” so vital to Ame ri c an intere s t s .A rm e n i a It was a rem a r kable perfo rm a n c e , an d has a far larger and more influ e n t i a l

5 4 THE NEW YO R K E R, DECEMBER 18, 2000 Ame ri c an diaspora, and Azer baijan has a ll our live s . And when we thought up in the rur al Georgian village of Ma - one of the world ’s great res e r ves of oi l . about that part of the world we never mati in the thirt i e s ,d u ring the worst of Baker told me that by 1991 it had be- fo r g ot it. The man’s a hero.” the purge yea r s . Yet his allegiance to co me clear to the Bush Adm i n i s t ra t i o n Stalin never wavere d , and by the time he that new institutions were about to form he world first became aware of She v- was twe n t y, in 1948, he had joined the out of the wrec kage of the Commu - Tard n a d z e in 1985, when Mikhail Par ty. Shev a rd n a d z e, the youngest of nist world , and that Ame ri c a had been Go rb a ch e v,the new leader of th e Sovi e t five chi l d re n , was a talented student and handed a rar e opportu n i t y to influe n c e Un i on , asked his old friend to rep l a c e his parents urged him to become a doc- th e m . “If th e r e was one special place in For eign Minister And r ei Gromy k o ,one to r . In s t e a d , he chose politics. He ad- that reg i on , one country above all that of the last of the hard-line Sov i e t s .O n e vanced rap i d ly—by 1972, he had be- we knew we needed to help, it was evening the previous winter,at Pit s u n d a , co me the Georgian Par ty leader—not Ge o r g i a , ” Baker told me. “Getting the a res o r t on the Black Sea coast favored just because he shut down oppone n t s oil out matters, and so does Georgia’s by the Soviet bosses, the two had spoke n but also because he ran a harsh public phys i cal and cultural position in the at length; and Gorba ch e v had said,“We campaign against corrup t i on . wo rl d . But obvi o u s l y you cannot think cannot go on living like this”—in Sovi e t Georgians pros p e r ed during Sovi e t about that country without thinking so c i e t y.“Eve r ything is rot t e n . ” Shev a r d- ti m e s , but they did so by playing an- about Eduard Shev a rd n a d ze . I am not na d z e rep l i e d , “It has to be cha n g e d . ” gl e s , avoiding rul e s , and breaking laws. su r e that the Cold War could have ended Shev a rd n a d z e, who is seven ty - tw o , (Almost inva ri a b l y, in Soviet films the pe a c e f u l ly without him. He changed was an unlikely rad i ca l . He had grown mobsters were Georgian.) Their pro- du c e , their wine, and even their mineral water were priz ed in Moscow, wh i c h opened up many opportunities for brib - e ry. Sh ev a rd n a d ze, how e ve r, re a l i ze d that an econo my based on theft was bound to fail.Not long after taking over as Par ty boss, he cal led a meeting of hi s deputies and asked them to raise their hands if t h ey agreed that he should la u n c h a war on corrupt offic i a l s .E ve ry hand shot into the air. Then Shev a r d- na d z e asked the deputies to keep their ar ms raised as he circled the roo m che c k- ing wris t s . Anyone wearing some t h i n g better than a cheap Soviet timepiece was fired . Sh ev a rd n a d ze supported intell e c- tuals when other Comm unist leaders tr ied to put them in pris on . Dur ing the Br ezh n e v era, films that one could never see in Moscow were rou t i n e ly — i f di s - cre e t ly — o n view in Tb i l i s i . The film - maker Tengiz Abuladze, who began writing his anti-Stalinist epic “Re p e n - ta n c e ” in 1981, ne ver cons i d e r ed mak- ing the film until Shev a rd n a d z e enco u r - aged him to pro c e e d . “This is a Sh a k e s p e a rean sort of co u n t r y,’ ’ Ge o r g i a ’s best-known direc - to r , Ro b e r t Stu ru a , said when I spoke with him one evening in Tb i l i s i . “And our leader is the most Sha k e s p e a re a n am o ng us, with all his flaws and all the gi ft s . Shev a rd n a d z e supported us when it was impossible for him to do it. You can ’t imagine how rar e it was—a Com- munist with respect for free speech. ” When Sh ev a rd n a d ze was named For eign Minister,he had rare l y been out She vard n a dze is increasingly seen as a cause of Ge o r g i a ’ s probl e m s , not the solution. of the Soviet Union, and many diplo-

THE NEW YO R K E R, DECEMBER 18, 2000 5 5 na d z e is an open and unassuming man. He is quiet and refle c t i v e, and I couldn’t find an aide who rem e m b e r ed the last time he had raised his voice. He alwa ys seems to be alone , even when he is not. In T b i l i s i , his routine seldom vari e s : ea c h morning at eight-thirty, he settles into an armor-plated Mercedes that the Ge r man gover nment donated after the first attempt on his life (there was an- o t h e r, in 1998). Sh ev a rd n a d ze ra re ly gets home before 10 P.M. His friends are his colle a g u e s . He sometimes attends the opening of a play or a conc e r t with his wife, Nan u l i . But he does almost nothing but work. (I asked one of hi s closest aides, Peter Mamrad z e,if I could spend some time with Shev a rd n a d z e outside the offic e . He looked at me, sm i l e d , and said,“Not unless you plan to sleep with him.”) Af ter Shev a rd n a d z e resigned and the Soviet Union colla p s e d , he could have em b a r ked on an entirel y new life. He was invited to lecture for handsome fee s at universities around the world ; he was of fe r ed foundation jobs. None of it ap- pealed to him. He spent most of 1991 at a Moscow think tank that he had founded and then ret u rn e d , bri e fl y, to “You should go and talk to Sa n ta ,d e a r, even his position at the For eign Ministry. By though you feel he screwed you last yea r. ” th e n , th o u g h , the che m i s t r y betwe e n him and Gorba ch e v was gone , and he • • so o n left for go o d .A fter that, for what- ever rea s on — p a t ri o t i s m , eg o, pri d e , or , mo r e likely, a mixture of them all— mats were shocke d . He asserted himself The warning seemed alarmi s t , but it pre- Shev a rd n a d z e felt that he had onl y one im m e d i a t e l y, th o u g h , leading the re- saged the coup attempt of Aug u s t ,1 9 9 1 . cho i c e . “I thought about what I would fo r mist wing of Go rb a ch e v’s politbu ro ; “Let this be my protest against what is do next,” he told his longtime aide and and in the period between 1988 and ha p p e n i n g, ” Shev a rd n a d z e told the star- in t e rp re t e r ,Pav el Pal e zche n k o .“Re t u r n 1990 he trave l led freq u e n t l y betwe e n tled deputies before walking out of th e to Georgia? Well , a differ ent kind of Mo s c o w and Was h i n g t on ,e n t e r ing into ha ll . The speech marked the end of Go r - people are in charge there now, and the a rem a rk a b l y open personal rel a t i on - b a ch ev’s most pro g re s s i ve period of attitude towa r d me has cha n g e d . But I ship with his Am e ri can counterp a rt , le a d e r s h i p . Within two yea r s , Shev a r d- cannot ret i r e and do nothing.” James Baker. na d z e would ret u r n to Georgia,and find Ge o r g i a ’s first post-Soviet Pres i d e n t , “I decided by May of ’89 that this hi m s e l f in charge of a gover nment so the myst i c al nationalist fanatic Zviad was somebody whose word was goo d , me d i e val and divided that legislators had Ga m s a k h u rd i a , had driv en the nation w h om you could trust com p l e t e ly, ” to be forbidden to car r y guns into Parl i a - into civil war. By the fall of 19 9 1 , he Baker said.“He felt like something dra- me n t . Yet by 1995—when the car bomb c o u l d n’t con t rol the fighting on the matic was going to come , and that they exploded in Tb i l i s i — Sh ev a rd n a d ze, by st re e t s of his own cap i t a l ; even t u a l ly, a ought to make it happen in an orde r ly ne go t i a t i n g , com p r omising with gang- Ma fi a dandy named Jaba Ioseliani, wh o and peaceful way.” st e r s , doing ever ything but actually wag- ran a gang ca lled the Mkhedri on i — But by December of 19 9 0 , Go rb a - ing another war, had managed to pull Ho r s e m e n — o ver came Gamsakhurdi a , che v’s most passionate idealist had had Georgia back from the edge of an a r chy. who fled in January,19 9 2 , to the Cheche n enough of the rea c t i on a r y intrigue in cap i t a l , Gro z n y, ac r oss the mountain the Krem l i n . He appeared before the xcept for the prot ru d i n g , bu rn i n g pass that serves as the border betwe e n Con g r ess of Peo p l e ’s Deputies and an- Eha z el eyes and the occas i on a l ly er- Georgia and Rus s i a . By New Yea r ’s Eve nounced that a “dictatorship is comi n g, ” rant wisps of white hair—which give in 1993, under circumstances that have and that he had no choice but to res i g n . him a haunted look— E d u a r d Shev a r d- n ever been fully explained, G a m s a-

5 6 THE NEW YO R K E R, DECEMBER 18, 2000 kh u r dia either committed suicide or was dle of one of Tb i l i s i ’s most popular parks. ki ll e d . By then, Ioseliani and his gang He wore a double-breasted linen jacke t we r e in cha r g e . over a fashionable shirt with no colla r ; Ev en in the ric h trad i t i o n of Ca u - his gray hair was perfec t l y trim m e d , as casian bandits, Ioseliani stands out: he we r e his fing e rn a i l s . I asked him if he had spent muc h of his life in pris on , had anything to do with the 1995 assas- dr essed like an industrial baron, and was si n a t i o n attempt. He spat on the floo r , a playw ri g h t ,n ovel i s t , and former dram a focussed his eyes on me, and said, “Be - te a ch e r . He is known in Tbilisi as both a li e ve me, I wouldn’t have missed.” Ma fi a leader and a politician, an d , in his cas e ,it is impossible to separate the two . eo r g i a ’s appeal to the West is ob- In 1991, ma n y people had tried to per- Gvi o u s : it is a Christian encla v e in suade Shev a rd n a d z e to ret u r n to Geor- a largely Muslim part of the worl d , gi a , but while Gamsakhurdia rem a i n e d a n d ,b e cause it is able to accomm o d a t e in office he didn’t want to appear to be pipelines running from Baku to Tur - planning a coup.A year later,when She v- ke y, it can help the West diversify its a rd n a d ze arri ved in T b i l i s i , Ioseliani oil supply while increasing its influe n c e be c ame his chi e f con fi dant and emis- in Central Asia. Tur ning the country sa r y to interna t i o nal meetings. Io s e l i a n i into a buffer to keep Russia from assert- and his crew may have been ven a l , bu t ing imperialistic ambitions would be th e y provided the force that Shev a r d- an extra benefit. Shev a rd n a d z e works na d z e needed to defeat gangs that were ha r d at the task; Georgia has gained mo r e dangerou s . en t r y to the Council of Eu ro p e , an d By then, Georgia was falling apart. Shev a rd n a d z e has said that in a few Warf a r e had taken hold in the provi n c e years he will “kn o c k on NATO’s door,” a of South Ossetia. It was worse in Ab- goal that even he rea l i z es Georgia is un- kh a z i a , wh e r e Muslim separatists had li k e l y to achi e ve. ex p e l led two hundred thousand ethnic Georgia belongs more to the Wes t Ge o r g i a n s . The battle there cont i n u e d than any other Asian country,yet it takes for nearly two yea r s , and Shev a rd n a d z e mo r e of its heritage from the steppes found himself in the middle of it . Whe n than any Wes t e r n nation. As Rezo Ga- the Abkhazian cap i t a l , Suk h u m i , fina l ly bri a d z e,a prominent director and scree n - fell , in the autumn of 19 9 3 , Shev a r d- writ e r ,said to me one night as we sipped na d z e, who not long before had had mil- Tur kish coffee in the café that he own s li o ns of men and thousands of nu cl e a r in Tbi l i s i ’s old town , “Georgia is not Asia we a p o ns at his disposal, stood sweating and it’s not Europ e . It is part of a Med- in muddied combat fatigues and watche d it e r r anean culture that begins in Gibral - he l p l e s s l y as young Georgian soldiers tar and ends in my caf é . ” bled to death beside him. When I asked The Wes t e r n pres e n c e , how e ver , is him how he felt about ret u r ning from gr owing rap i d ly. The streets of Tb i l i s i Mo s c o w, he rep l i e d , “It felt like I had ar e crammed with S.U.V.s driv en by in- been dipped in boiling tar.” te rn a t i o nal offici a l s , both Ame ri c an and Shev a rd n a d z e has often spoken about E u ro p e a n ; t h e re are also re p re s e n t a - what he had to do to end Georgia’s civil ti v es of ma n y humanitarian-aid grou p s wa r , and his rel a t i o nship with Ioseliani and various agencies of the United Na- was his most obvious comp r omi s e . It ti on s , as well as a full complement of was an alliance that was destined to un- oi l m e n , hu s t l e r s , de vel o p ment experts , rave l . Shev a rd n a d z e tried to disband the com mu n i ca t i o ns specialists, and spies. Mk h e d ri o ni as early as 1993, but he At nearly ever y meal, the dining roo m at w a s n’t successful until after the fir s t Be t s y ’s—Tb i l i s i ’s best guesthouse—i s as s a s s i n a t i o n attempt, in 1995. At that filled with the sounds of Am e ri ca n s po i n t , Ioseliani was sent to pris on , al - cutting deals. though no evidence of his invo l vem e n t Fiv e years ago, it was often hard to was ever prod u c e d . bo o k a cal l to Moscow. Now there are Io s e l i a n i , who is in his early seven - ce l l pho nes in backp a ck s , on bicycle s , ti e s , was released after Shev a rd n a d z e’s and in car s . FedEx deliver s . Ge o r g i a n reë l e c t i o n this sprin g , and not long ago cuisine remains popular, but there are I went to visit him at his sporty new also Fren ch ,C h i n e s e ,and Central Asian clu bh o u s e , wh i c h was built in the mid- res t a u r ants in the cap i t a l . When I was

THE NEW YO R K E R, DECEMBER 18, 2000 5 7 in town , pe rf o r mances of ba ll e t , op e ra , Russians were quickl y reb u f f ed by She v- b ri g h t - red plastic buck e t s , wheels of and sever al plays sold out each night, in - ard n a d z e, who understands that neu- cheese the size of ti re s , rusted tools, an - cluding Robert Stu ru a ’s prod u c t i o n of tra l i t y is his onl y hope of staving off a cient spare parts — a l l spread out on ta- “Ha m l e t , ” in the Rus t a v eli Th e a t re . A fu ll - b l o wn war throughout the Cauca- bles as if th e y were Swiss watche s .T h e r e pu p p e t - t h e a t r e group that Gabria d z e di- su s . But the Russian generals have kept we r e pictures of the late Chechen leader rects staged a lyric al ver s i o n of “Th e up the pres s u r e, and at least twice in the Dz h o khar Dud a yev and enough wolf Battle of Sta l i n g ra d ’’ in a tiny theatre past year bombs have fallen on Geor- insignias—the sign of the Chech e n that he and his troupe built themselves . gian villa g e s . fighter—to outfit an army . The gor g e Ea r lier this mont h , the group brou g h t “It is literal ly the case that no high- was like Groz n y in another way, to o : you the show—a metaphor for the death le vel meeting takes place between Ame r - could sense the violence. of the Soviet Union—to the Kennedy ic an and Russian officials without the I had last been in those mountains in Center in Was h i n g t on . wo r d ‘G e o r g i a ’being mentione d , ’ ’Stro b e 19 9 6 , right after the Russians had been Tal b o t t , the Deputy Sec re t a r y of Sta t e , chased out. I had driv en from Groz n y ust as Georgia’s wars of se p a ra t i s m told me rec e n t l y.“When we talk to Rus - th r ough the peaks to Itum-Kal e , fifte e n Jand identity were ending, in 1994, si a , we talk about red lines. Those are miles from the Georgian borde r . Th e r e C h e ch ny a — w h i ch shares Georgia’s lines it must not cros s . Well , the brig h t - I watched Chechen elders pro s t ra t e onl y border with Russia and has unhap- est of the red lines that exist is the borde r t h e m s e lves tow a rd Mecca , t h a n k i n g pi l y been a part of its empire for three be t ween Chechn ya and Georgia.” God for helping to destroy their enemy. hu n d r ed yea r s — a s s e r ted its indepen- The gorge has long been a tran s i t It was a late-fall day,and after the prayer s d e n c e .C h e chen rebels fought the Rus - point for drugs and arms on their way se ver al sheep were boiled in huge cau l - sian Army for two years before driv i n g fr om Afghanistan to Chechn ya and be- dr ons on the open fiel d s . fo r ty thousand weary soldiers from their yon d .M a ny of the people who live there By the fall of 19 9 9 , the Russian gen- te r ri t o r y, and the war often threa t e n e d im m i g r ated from Chechn ya decades ago er als had adopted the tactics of Ge n - to spill over the mountains and into an d , egged on by local warlo rd s ,t h e y re- er al Barat i n s k y , who in defeating the Ge o r g i a . The confl ict was a reminder of sent the humanitarian aid that is avail- Ch e c hen leader Imam Sha m i l , in 1859, ho w fragile peace was in the Caucas u s , able for the new Chechen ref u g e e s . ins t r ucted his soldiers to level ever y ham- and of the extent to which Russia still I drove up from Tbilisi one morni n g , l e t ,v i ll a g e, and lean-to they could find . seeks to cont r ol the reg i on .M o s c o w has ar r iving after a shoot-out in which eight Russian para t roopers have now dug helped start two of Ge o r g i a ’s civil wars gang members had died. People were on in throughout the mountains. On the in the past ten yea r s , and the Rus s i a n ed g e . Although the refugee camps are Georgian side of the borde r , pa rt i c u - mi l i t a r y maintains four bases on Geor- supposed to admit onl y wome n , chi l - la r ly at night, one can listen as SU 25 s gian territ o r y. dre n , and old men, the first thing that attempt to incinerate the last few thou- Georgia managed to remain aloof caught my eye along the dusty trai l s — sand reb e l s . du r ing the previous Chechen confli c t , just thirty miles from the battlefiel d s — Now,as the gorge fills with the detri- but it has been harder this time. Las t was two groups of young men crui s i n g tus of wa r , the pres s u r e on Georgia has yea r , when the war started again, th e ar ound in Mercedes S600s, with smoke d gr own intense. Mo s c o w’s military lead- Russians tried to station troops in the mi r r ors and Chechen flags pasted on the ers have accused Tbilisi of, am o ng other Pankisi Gorge, a narrow vall ey that ba ck . The scene in the gorge was muc h t h i n g s , p roviding training camps for leads to the mountain pass where Geor- like what you saw in Groz n y,in 1994,on reb e l s , hiding members of Osama bin gia ends and Chech nya begins. T h e the eve of the first war: ma r kets full of Lad e n ’s terror ist grou p , tra n s p o r ting Tal - iban fighters to help the Chech e n s ,a n d su p p l ying the Chechens with guns.Th e charges have been refuted by ever y offi- cial observer who has visited, yet Mos- co w persists. “When they accuse us of using heli- copters to fer r y rebels to the Cheche n battle zone, ” Shev a rd n a d z e told me,“t h e Russians apparen t l y believe I am too pr oud to admit that I am the leader of a co u n t r y that does not have a single heli- copter that works well enough to do any su c h thing.”

ast Apri l , Shev a rd n a d z e was elected Lto a second term with more than ei g h t y per cent of the vote.Th e r e was no real opposition , and sure ly he would “Le t ’s face it: you and this organ i z ation have never been a good fit. ” ha v e won a fair and open election. Bu t the contest was neither fair nor open. Wes t e r n and local observers comp l a i n e d lo u d ly about tamperin g ; and they found that many polling places in contested re- gi o ns were closed ille g a l ly and that at least some votes were faked by support- ers of the Pres i d e n t . A story soon circulated that says muc h about the disheartening journe y of the leader who once ripped watche s fr om the arms of his Comm unist colle a g u e s . The day after the election, She v- ard n a d z e was approa c hed by Peter Mam- rad z e, who is the closest thing he has to a chi e f of st a f f . “Th e r e is good news and there is bad new s , ’ ’ Ma m ra d z e told him. “The goo d ne ws is that you won in a landslide.” “And the bad news ? ” Shev a rd n a d z e as k e d . “Nobody voted for you , ” Ma m ra d z e rep l i e d . (I assumed that the story was ap o c r ypha l , but I asked the extrem e l y goo d - n a t u r ed Mamrad z e about it any- wa y. He laughed and said, “C o me on, you know he got so m e vo t e s . ” ) It is perhaps unfair to ask any single person to car r y the weight of a na- ti on , but for more than a decade She v- ard n a d z e has been widely seen as the so l u t i o n to all of Ge o r g i a ’s prob l e m s .I n - c re a s i n g ly, how e ve r, and perhaps in- evi t a b l y, ma n y people also reg a r d him as a principal cau s e . To achi e ve peace, he tr aded the idealism of his Gorba ch e v years for the pragmatism needed to bar- gain with warlo rd s . If the warlo r ds no lo nger run the country,a small group of we a l t h y and dishonest plutocrats do. Pen s i o ns aver age seven dollars a mont h and are infreq u e n t l y paid. Th e r e is no real public sector. The gover nment has made it easy for a few well- c on n e c t e d businessmen to snap up valuable state pro p e r ties for almost nothing. Shev a r d- na d z e’s son-in-law rec e i v ed a license to run one of Ge o r g i a ’s mobile-phon e co mpanies for fifteen dollars—far less than it would have cost him to buy a te l e ph on e . “Under Georgian law, you cannot say that the sale of a mobile- pho ne license for fifteen dollars is tech- ni ca l ly ille g a l , ’ ’ Ch ri s t o p her Lan e , th e I n t e rn a t i onal Mon e t a ry Fund re p re- se n t a t i v e in Tb i l i s i , told me. “It ’s terri- b ly impru d e n t , but it’s not a cri m e . ” T h e re are as many police officers on the streets of Tbilisi as there are in New Yo rk , w h i ch has at least eight

THE NEW YO R K E R, DECEMBER 18, 2000 5 9 ne a r ly every w h e r e he went. No long e r . “The man saved Georgia, and I doubt that anyone else could have done it,” Ghia No d i a , who runs a think tank cal led the Caucasian Institute for Pea c e , De m o c ra c y and Devel o pm e n t , told me. “But it’s time already to say the trut h . Ed u a r d Shev a rd n a d z e has lost touch com p l e t e l y with this country. He is an old power addict, and his rep u t a t i o n is at the lowest it has ever been.” “The truth is that Georgia is as corrupt as any place you will ever see, ”G e l a Ch a r kviani told me when I went to see him one morning at the State Chan- ce ll e r y. Ch a rk v i a n i , no critic of the re- gi m e , is one of Shev a rd n a d z e’s oldest al lies and his senior adviser on forei g n af f a i r s . He is a former sociology profe s - so r , with thick eyeb r ows and thinning ha i r ;his father,Kan d i d a , was a loyal aide to Lav ren t y Beria , Sta l i n ’s K.G.B. chi e f . “I s n ’t it about time we tell the trophy wife about the trophy concubine?” “Nobody ever had democrac y in this pa r t of the world , ” Ch a r kviani said. “It • • do e s n ’t come natural ly to us.” ot long ago, a young televi s i o n cor- times the population of Tb i l i s i . Pol i c e - highest post I have ever held. And it is Nres p o ndent named Akaki Gogi- men are paid almost nothing, so they the post that I want to define me.” chaishvili began his broa d c ast this way: attempt to scrat c h out a living by shak- When Gorba ch e v was in powe r , he “In t e rn a t i o nal experts have concl u d e d ing down motoris t s ; th e y are squeegee lo ved to talk during intervi ew s . She v- th a t , owing to corrup t i on , the state bud- men with badges. I was pulled ove r a rd n a d ze is far less voluble, but on e get is losing an annual one billi o n laris th r ee times in ten days. “I don’t get paid, walks away feeling that he has shared fr om customs . This sum is equal to the and I have four chi l d re n , ’ ’ one office r his deepest thoughts and doubts. He is of fi cial state budget, wh i c h means that ex p l a i n e d . “Just give me five laris ” — so skilled at creating this impres s i o n that Georgia has two budgets—the offici a l about two and a half do ll a r s — “ and you a visitor can be dazzled. Shev a rd n a d z e one , wh i c h is applied to five milli o n cit- can go.” To get into univer s i t y one has to de c r ies the corrup t i o n that threatens to ize n s , and an unofficial budget, wh i c h is pa y a brib e , to get into the best courses ruin Georgia, but in important ways he exploited by fewer than a hundred high- you pay again. Then there are fees for is Ge o r g i a . If co r ru p t i o n is ram p a n t , ranking offici a l s . ” the tests (to take them and to pass them) who else could possibly stop it? Apa r t That re p o rt—and others that the and fees to grad u a t e . fr om comp l a i n i n g ,Shev a rd n a d z e has th i r ty-f o u r - y ear-old corres p o ndent pre- Shev a rd n a d z e knows all this.When I in fact done little. Plans are released and sents each week on his show, wh i c h is sat down with him at a large oval ta- ig n o re d . Spe e c hes are deliver ed and for- cal led “60 Minutes”—has startled the ble in the anteroo m outside his office , got t e n . No senior officials have gone co u n t r y. Go g i c haishvili is Georgia’s firs t he said grave l y,“We are facing a situation to jail, and onl y a few have been fired . tr ue inves t i g a t i v e televi s i o n journa l i s t , of in t o l e r able corrup t i on . It is not con- Br eaking the law is acceptable. When a and he re g u l a rly infuriates Sh ev a rd- nected with or dependent upon one or la n dl o r d shows a pros p e c t i v e tenant an na d ze . In fact, last summer he cal led a two ministers or even the whole gover n- ap a r tment in Tb i l i s i , he will alwa ys point ne ws confe r ence to announce that sev- ment of Ge o r g i a . . . .The entire syst e m out the electric al meter, the pho ne con- er al gover nment officials had told him was created full of co r ru p t i on .T h e y are ne c t i on , and the “il legal line,’ ’for stealing to run for his life, and in July the cha i r - flou ri s h i n g , and they are sucking blood el e c t ri c i t y when there is a blacko u t , as man of the Helsinki Comm i s s i o n met fr om the rest of so c i e t y. Th e y are killi n g th e r e has been ever y day this winter, or with Gogichaishvili in Was h i n g t o n and this nation. ” He pounded the table hard when the bill has gone unpaid. denounced the govern m e n t ’s efforts at enough to rattle the tea glasses. For many yea r s , Shev a rd n a d z e man- in t i m i d a t i on . I asked him if he ever looked back aged to avoid the fate of Go rb a ch e v and Akaki—as he is cal led by ever yone — with longing at his time away from Tb i l - Yel t s i n , who were reg a r ded abroad as lo o ks a bit like a thin, in t e l lectual And r e is i . “I remember those years with the vi s i on a r ies but were detested at home . Ag a s s i . His head is shaved and his black gr eatest prid e, ’ ’he said.“But my position Shev a rd n a d z e used to be met with crie s eyes are the size of wa l n u t s . He studied to d a y,being President of Ge o r g i a , is the o f “Nas Eduard ” — “ Our Eduard” — ge o l o g y at the univer s i t y in Tbilisi and

6 2 THE NEW YO R K E R, DECEMBER 18, 2000 then won a scholarship to study journa l - ism and politics at Duke Univer s i t y, be - fo r e working for a while in Was h i n g t on . Ea c h week he and his colleagues attack v a rious privileged gro u p s , u s u a lly in gr eat detail, and with supporting docu- ments in hand. The show some t i m e s feels brea t h l e s s , but it never roams far fr om the facts. Re c e n t l y, Akaki went after one of Sh ev a rd n a d ze’s favorite gro u p s , t h e u n i on of p ro fe s s i onal wri t e r s , w h i ch he accused of em b ez z l e m e n t . Wit h i n w e e k s , the securi ty establishment of Ge o r g i a — i n c luding the Interior Min- is t r y and the office of the general pros - e c u t o r — w e re ord e red to inve s t i g a t e Ak a k i ’s work and his life. “My bosses have been amazing, ” Akaki told me. “I made it clear to ever yone on the show that if th e y leave I will understand. Not one has gone . Old ladies come up on the street and kiss me.” The onl y time I saw Shev a rd n a d z e at a loss for words was when I asked him about “60 Minutes.” For a long while, he was silent.“Please believe me,’ ’he said fina l ly. “It was I who created the atmo- sph e r e for the newl y emerged free pres s . I have fixed meetings ever y Mond a y with the pres s . Does your President do that? Ever yone is invi t e d , and anyone can ask any question. ” He took a sip of tea and went on, “My popularit y is not what I would de- si re . This hungry population, with ar- rears in wages, p e n s i on s , u n e m p l oy- me n t — i t ’s terrib l e . Ho w can I betray these people and go home? For me, of co u r s e , the best thing would be to go hom e ,sit silently,write my memoirs,an d remember the great events that I have seen in my life. ” I suggested that might bo r e him. “Oh no, it would be won- de rf u l . My life is hell. It ’s a nightmare. Eve r y day I am burned again. When I came to Tb i l i s i , I had the feeling that I had dropped myse l f into an infern o . Ev en now I feel that I am swimming in water that is far too hot. It is hard, it is alwa ys hard, and it alwa ys will be.” ♦ 1           Fr om an advertisement in the Farmi n g t o n (Maine) Community Adverti s e r . Volunteers at The Theater At Monmouth ea r n credit towards tickets for the summer season, and nearly endless gratification from members of the company.

THE NEW YO R K E R, DECEMBER 18, 2000 6 3