MOSCOW (AFP)--The U.S. is disappointed with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and plans to replace him with a leader seen as more reliable, Russia's ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Dmitry Rogozin, said on Friday.
"Georgia's friends in NATO are strongly disillusioned with Saakashvili. He knows himself that Washington... has already made another choice. A new leader is being prepared for Georgia," Rogozin told the Vesti television channel.
"Most likely this will be Nino Burjanadze," he said, referring to a kay former ally of Saakashvili who recently started a new political party to challenge the Georgian leader and called for early presidential elections.
In a separate interview with Echo of Moscow radio station, Rogozin said the U.S. "had no more interest in dealing with a politician who went bankrupt" with his conduct in the August war between Russia and Georgia.
Rogozin did not reveal what information he was basing his comments on.
He praised Burjanadze as a "a strong woman, intelligent and very firm" and someone who "was not schizophrenic and does not chew his tie" - a reference to an embarassing August incident where Saakashvili was filmed chewing his tie.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 28, 2008 11:12 ET (16:12 GMT)

Publié le 28 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones