Nino Burjanadze’s cottage

The former speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Nino Burjanadze, tends to be President Mikhail Saakashvili's most dangerous competitor . Georgia's “iron lady” has claimed that she will never allow the president to alter the Constitution of the country. Now Saakashvili is planning to make Georgia a Constitutional Republic so that he will be able to be appointed to the post of prime minister and hold on to supreme power in the country. If he really tried to do so, Burjanadze will probably call the people out onto the streets.

Meanwhile, the ex-speaker more and more often finds herself at the center of a row. Not long ago her reputation was damaged after it was announced that her husband, the former Minister of Internal Affairs, was somehow connected with organized crime. Burjanadze is now compromised because of the 'cottage' scandal.

After the victory of the Georgian revolution, when Mikhail Saakashvili became President with the help of the speaker, Nino Burjanadze was presented with her official residence, a luxurious cottage in Tskhneti. She had to pay only 12% of its real cost. Burjanadze didn’t pay this. Recently she was forced to leave the cottage, but to one nearby, claiming that she only rents it.

For the Kremlin Burjanadze still seems the most probable partner, who may restore the relations between the two countries after the end of the “Saakashvili’s epoch”.