Julian Popov: Tributes to Shevardnadze's wisdom are misplaced

Eduard Shevardnadze, President of Georgia, the leader praised in the West for saving his country from disintegration and civil war, has resigned. Tributes have flowed freely from Western politicians. The other beneficiary of world public opinion has been Russia's Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, whose mediation was instrumental in securing this act.

We are supposed to believe Mr Shevardnadze's hand was not forced by the Georgian army, many of whose soldiers joined the protesters. Meanwhile, Russia has been painted as a great and friendly power, bringing peace to a troubled state. In fact, Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, that great champion of democracy, had a choice - to go in with his army, as Stalin did in 1921, or Gorbachov in 1989, or to bow to the inevitable.

On the Radio 4's Today programme a former foreign secretary, Lord Howe, spoke with admiration for Mr Shevardnadze, hailing him as the architect of the end of the Cold War. Memories are clearly short. The US State Department also said that thanks to him "millions of people living in the former Soviet Union are free today to pursue their own dreams in states committed to political and economic reform".

But for the past few years, the people of Georgia have hated their President for his total failure to deal with the economy, with separatist movements, with poverty, with health services, with jobs, with pensions, with electricity shortages - with anything and everything.

When he came to power in 1992, they expected him to tackle corruption. It was, ironically, the same mandate he had been given by Mr Brezhnev 20 years earlier when he was Georgia's First Secretary. His only achievement in that department has been the enrichment of his own family, which is believed to control 70 per cent of the economy. A few weeks ago this "towering figure" of world democracy arrogantly rigged the parliamentary elections. He ran Georgia by trying to balance the corrupt interests of political and economic factions. "He doesn't interfere much with their dealings as long as they don't threaten his position," a taxi driver in Tbilisi told me last month.

People believed him because they knew he could talk to Moscow and Georgians know that, for at least the past 200 years, Russia has posed the main threat to independence. Russian influence has flourished. With a little help from the Russians, separatist rebels in the prosperous Abkhazia province in the west of the country kicked out many the 80 per cent majority Georgian population. Russia now has its peace-keeping forces in Abkhazia, its entrepreneurs buying up all the hotels along the Black Sea coast and, better still, its consular team is busily issuing Russian passports to any Abkhaz needing travel documents.

Before Central Europe's Velvet Revolutions, Georgia had already attempted one of its own. In spring 1989, demonstrators in Tbilisi came out onto the streets, singing songs and holding candles. The Soviet army killed 22 of them and injured thousands more. Mr Shevardnadze was a member of the Politburo then, but he denied any participation in or prior knowledge of the army's actions. Other members of the Politburo said he knew the army would intervene.

For the West, Mr Shevardnadze provided stability and worldly manners. Not that far from Georgia, President Karimov of Uzbekistan also provides stability, partly by keeping 10,000 religious and political dissidents under lock and key. Mr Putin also maintains stability by persecutingbusinessmen who back opposition parties.

His resignation is no reason to celebrate his contribution to world democracy. It is more appropriate to remember the Tbilisi massacre of 1989. This time the challenge for the US and Europe, rather than praising the manners of Brezhnev's dinosaur, is to show we can constructively support regime change when it is already achieved by the will of the people rather than invented by Pentagon and Downing Street strategists and muddled by transatlantic rivalries.

The author is a European Commission researcher who visited Georgia shortly before the elections.