Russia Aside, Georgia Chief is Pressed at Home.

On Dec. 20, the eve of his 41st birthday, President Mikheil Saakashvili was racing around western Georgia shaking hands. He told miners that his “heart hurt” when he saw their city suffer, and promised to build a ski resort in the village of Gomarduli, posing with a gold-toothed grandmother who giggled in his embrace like a naughty schoolgirl. [...]

“Georgia has a lot of problems, and one of them is how people perceive Saakashvili,” said Sarah E. Mendelson, a Russia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “He’s the elected president, and ultimately this is all up to Georgians. But I hear some people say, ‘You need to get rid of him, or get him under wraps.’ ”

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