Georgia Country

In this half-abandoned place of rusting ports and skeleton homes, there is a land that is recognized by nobody. Fifteen years since its bloody war with Georgia, the breakaway republic of Abkhazia is a surreal spot where Soviet isolation lingers, the Cold War never ended and people cling to facades of statehood. Now, with Russia and the United States engaged in a high-stakes power grab in the former Soviet Union, this forlorn slip of lush beaches and snowy mountains has emerged as a hub of new tensions between the Cold War enemies.

NATO is unlikely to immediately put Ukraine and Georgia on a course toward membership, the group's spokesman said Wednesday night, dealing a setback to President Bush, who has pushed hard to expand the 26-nation alliance to include the two countries on Russia's southern flank that had been part of the Soviet Union.

Initial tests indicate that Georgian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili, an opposition leader who had claimed he was the target of an assassination plot, died of natural causes, British police said Thursday. Patarkatsishvili, 52, died Tuesday night in his mansion near London less than two months after he said he feared for his life because of his role in a protest movement against Georgia's government.

Georgia's beleaguered leader appeared to have narrowly won reelection to the presidency in a tightly contested snap vote, elections officials announced late Sunday. If the preliminary results are borne out, Mikheil Saakashvili will clear an important hurdle in his quest to restore his tarnished reputation. The once wildly popular hero of a pro-Western democratic revolution and market-based reforms was fighting this weekend to win 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.

Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili sent his countrymen to the polls Saturday in a snap presidential election, a risky gamble designed to quiet complaints of creeping authoritarianism and prove the once and would-be future president is still a pro-democracy icon. With his credibility on the line, Saakashvili abruptly stepped down as president a year and a half ahead of schedule and called for this weekend's vote as a referendum on his rule.

The government lifted a nine-day state of emergency and President Mikheil Saakashvili appointed a new prime minister, banker Lado Gurgenidze. Saakashvili promised not to impede opposition parties in the run-up to a Jan. 5 presidential vote. Western allies have been pressing him to lift the restrictions on media and demonstrations since a violent crackdown on protesters last week.

A state of emergency that was imposed after a police crackdown on opposition protests will end Friday, said Georgia's parliamentary speaker, a close ally of President Mikheil Saakashvili. "The state of emergency will be lifted on Nov. 16, and we will switch to a normal life," Nino Burjanadze said in a televised statement. Saakashvili imposed the state of emergency last week, after violently dispersing opposition protests in the capital, Tbilisi.

Russia said it had closed its last base in Georgia, formally ending its military presence there after more than two centuries. Gen. Andrei Popov, commander of military forces in the Caucasus, signed documents handing to Georgia the territory of its base at Batumi in the Adzharia region. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili reached agreement with Russia in 2005 for the closure of the bases.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili eased the crisis that has gripped his country for a week by pledging Thursday to hold presidential elections and a referendum on voting for a new parliament on Jan. 5. A day after the pro-Western government's democratic credentials were badly bruised by a violent crackdown against thousands of opposition demonstrators, Saakashvili surprised even his opponents by agreeing to go to the polls in less than two months.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili declared a 15-day state of emergency Wednesday after riot police armed with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets battled thousands of protesters who are demanding new elections. Raising furious protests from opposition leaders who claimed the government had abandoned the ideals of the 2003 Rose Revolution, authorities also closed down two television stations and expelled three Russian diplomats.