The International Herald Tribune (international edition of the NYT) article was found in the Boston Globe (the NYT's younger sister):
"Georgian leader urges West to support nation; Path to democracy bumpy but desire clear, she says" by Dan Bilefsky/International Herald Tribune November 29, 2007
BRUSSELS - Nino Burjanadze, the acting president of Georgia, cautioned the West yesterday that if it punished Georgia, it would risk undermining the country's already fragile democracy and play into the hands of President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
The pro-Western government of Mikheil Saakashvili, whom Burjanadze has replaced as head of state under rules that require him to step down while he campaigns in upcoming presidential elections, faces its most serious crisis since he assumed power following a bloodless revolution in 2003.
Earlier this month, he briefly imposed a state of emergency in response to anti-government protests and shut down an opposition television station. At the same time, relations with Russia have seldom been worse, with Saakashvili alleging that Moscow's intelligence services are stirring unrest in the former Soviet republic.
Speaking more than two weeks after Saakashvili called snap elections following the state of emergency, Burjanadze defended the decision to ban public meetings and independent television broadcasts and she insisted that Georgia remained committed to democracy. The state of emergency was lifted on Nov. 16.
Burjanadze: "This is not the best time for Georgia. We are a democracy, but we are not as strong a democracy as France or the Netherlands. The difficulties we are experiencing are not unusual for a new democracy. Western European countries must understand they had more than a hundred years to build democracy. We have had only six years."
Washington, which had lauded Georgia as a model of a nation trying to shed decades of despotism, warned that the state of emergency had harmed the efforts by Saakashvili to integrate Georgia, which is in the Caucasus, into the European Union and NATO. Burjanadze, the speaker of the Parliament, said the clampdown had been justified to prevent civil war.
Burjanadze, who was in Brussels to meet with senior European officials, said Georgia's most important priority was to strengthen its ties with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. She warned that if the West tried to penalize Georgia for the recent unrest, it would undermine Georgia's democracy while emboldening Putin.
Burjanadze: "Russia is trying to create obstacles to our path to NATO. Our European friends should understand our difficulties."
Russia is ON the HORIZON of WAR, huh?
Getting closer, too!
