Mikheil Saakashvili – President of Georgia
In 2008, the director of Die Hard II cast Andy Garcia as Mikheil Saakashvili in the movie 5 Days of War. Three years later, Saakashvili appears as himself in World Leaders in Their Underpants. All things considered, it is probably a better performance.
Turning back the clock still further, today’s featured president survived a 2005 assassination attempt which, had it succeeded, would have also taken out the then US president, George W. Bush. If Saakashvili is a popular president, it is because he has stood up to their imposing neighbour to the North, the Russian Federation. These tensions most likely originate in Russia’s heavy investment in oil pipelines running through the former Soviet territory. They have been expressed in frequent conflict, especially over breakaway regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the citizens of which have been issued with Russian passports.
Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili now joins an ever-growing cast list of global notables in their underthingies. There he will meet Alexander Ankvab, Acting President of Abkhazia and Vladimir Putin, and discover the long-absent largesse to be found in ones smalls.
