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By SETH MYDANS

Published: November 23, 2003

TBILISI, Georgia, Nov. 24 — President Eduard A. Shevardnadze of Georgia, once acclaimed for his role in helping to end the cold war, resigned in disgrace today in the face of huge public protests over the corruption and economic collapse that have marked his 12-year rule.
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Georgia's problems became a worry for the United States, which is counting on the completion of a pipeline from the Caspian Sea through Georgia to Turkey as an alternate source of oil.

Partly because of the esteem in which Mr. Shevardnadze is held in Washington, his country became one of the leading recipients of American assistance, with $1 billion flowing in over 10 years.
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By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 26, 2003; 3:19 PM

TBILISI, Georgia, Nov. 25 -- Mikheil Saakashvili said he loved living in Washington, pedaling his bicycle from his Dupont Circle apartment to George Washington University, where he studied human rights law. And he recalls loving New York, where he worked for a prestigious law firm.
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In an interview Tuesday, Saakashvili said he would run for president; a few hours after he spoke, Parliament set elections for Jan. 4. Saakashvili instantly became the prohibitive favorite.
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Should Saakashvili win, it would make him the most Americanized national leader ever seen in the former Soviet Union outside the Baltic states. Aside from his studies at George Washington, Saakashvili also earned a degree at Columbia Law School and fondly recalls wandering around Capitol Hill and cheering on the New York Knicks. Hanging on his office wall is his Edmund S. Muskie fellowship certificate and a picture of him with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

\"I was really raised on American democracy, not only my studies but much more,\" he said. \"JFK is my political idol.\" In modern terms, he patterns himself after another American politician. \"For me, the closest thing in terms of political orientation is John McCain. We're very close.\"

Tall with a broad frame, boyish smile and chatty manner, Saakashvili also studied in the Ukrainian city of Kiev, in Florence and in Strasbourg, France, before going to the United States. He met his Dutch wife, Sandra Roelofs, while in France, and speaks so many languages that during a news conference this week he switched seamlessly from Georgian to Russian to English to French.
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