MOSCOW -- A former Soviet republic, Georgia, is in the limelight again. Outraged by an allegedly fraudulent parliamentary election, protesters toppled the government of President Eduard A. Shevardnadze and installed an interim administration led by a number of opposition leaders.
The dramatic eruption in Tbilisi is likely to have long-lasting and not necessarily beneficial consequences for the nation of 5 million people, which shares the Caucasus with two other countries that are even more trouble-ridden -- Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Georgia has always been a nation of stark contrasts. It has one of the oldest cultures in the region, yet its various regions and ethnic groups have never been at peace with each other. It is blessed with beaches, walnut groves and pastures, yet it traditionally has been poor. It has nurtured first-class artists and poets, yet it was the birthplace of Joseph Stalin and his sadistic spy chief Lavrenty Beria. After the collapse of communism, it was one of the first members of the former Soviet empire to taste democracy, yet soon after it descended into civil war and ethnic conflict. The person to rescue it from the fratricide was Shevardnadze.