Summer in Tbilisi. The latticed balconies suspended over the Kura river alive with chatter; naked boys splashing in the fountains; the grimy courtyards overrun by unruly vines—and rumours of war. If it were not for geopolitics and history, Georgia would be rich. Its 5m-odd population ought to subsist comfortably on its Black Sea summer resorts, winter skiing, agriculture and transit revenues. Under Mikhail Saakashvili (pictured above), who was swept to the country's presidency by the "rose revolution" of 2003, it at last has a chance of becoming a prosperous, free country. But the Soviet rule that followed the tsarist period bequeathed Georgia and Mr Saakashvili daunting problems—including Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two enclaves that broke away from Tbilisi in nasty wars in the early 1990s. Each summer, as the weather gets hotter, the political temperature rises in the enclaves.
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