Dear Presidents,

Ladies and Gentlemen,   

Of course it’s always an amazing feeling to be here in Warsaw. It’s not only because of the tremendous sympathy we have towards Pols and Polish people, Polish leadership. But also it’s an amazing always encouraging and energizing experience for all of us.

I think when you walk today the streets of Warsaw it’s hard to imagine when Poland was just 15-20 years ago in fact how desperate it looked how hopeless and divided the situation appeared for many many decades an even centuries for this country. And so when you see Poland today, it’s not just an important European country but I think the Presidency of this year propelled Poland to being one of the leading countries in Europe and undoubtedly the leader of this region. The country that kills the debate whether you should enlarge or not because it is relatively new country and it has very high economic growth and sound economic policies. The country that also understands both - the challenges of modernity but also is open up to the ideas not only from the west but from the east.  I think for us it’s very important experience. The experience is that if Poland could make it, I’m sure lots of us out there could make it.

We are talking today about what happened in Tunisia, about Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia or events in other places in North Africa or indeed what’s happening in streets of Moscow now in December 2011. Which all reminds us that everything that seems so solid so unshakable and you know that’s the point when we are talking about the fact that we have to deal with these dictatorships because that’s how they are. That’s the reality. So we have to accept the reality and deal with them. Nothing in 21 century is more fragile than a dictatorship. Nothing in 21 century is more fragile than the need to control information. Because on what the dictatorships are based on or the authoritarian systems is that you are having a cult; A cult of personality mostly or maybe a party but when you have openness of information when you have internet it’s so easy to get very ridiculous very fast. And that’s exactly what’s happening in many of these places – people are getting ridiculous. Because in a Democracy it’s a given fight that every day you have the challenge for your existence. You have to fight for your existence you have to prove yourself. If you are a dictator you can show a concern for 2 or 3 weeks or months, sometimes show maybe your body to your people, sometimes to show how strong you are how brutal you are again to be admired. But then again this is the shortest way to get ridiculous in most of those cases. That’s what new information flows bring. Because we are coming from the Europe of the 80-s and 90-s when you would have just one channel in many countries, one party newspaper, one face always on their front pages of the newspaper and suddenly we are launched into this new space where you have to fight on daily basis for your political existence. And that’s I think a very very sound system. What happened in Georgia is I mean there are lots of parallels. I think there are parallels from our revolutions, you know there is Roza Otunbayeva here who is an amazing woman, and I mean who would believe that in central Asia somebody would take power and have all the chances to do the same things what I was describing and then go through an ethnic conflict and manage to bring it down and then hand it over within a year and a half to an next elected leader.

I think this is something that has not been properly publicized in the world, has not been properly appreciated in the world, because people think somewhere else far out there, it’s not first of all that far. It’s a strategic region and it’s also a tremendous example. I went two-three weeks ago, to the ceremony handing over the power to Kirgizstan and I was shocked by the young people I saw there. You know still you look at media space and I think this media space all over Soviet Union is dominated by televisions of one particular country- Russia. If you watch Russian television, you would imagine that saying in my country people are shooting each other every day in streets in large numbers. I am an absolute villan, killer, all kind of other things and Georgia generally is a dangerous place. I went to Kirgizstan and they know everything about our reforms. They knew everything what my country has achieved. Much more than people know in Europe. Why? Because Europeans sometimes don’t want to know, because they have their own space, but in Kirgizstan people need to know what’s happening in the Post Soviet space. That was exactly example for me and I looked at them and said: Come on, you have been watching Russian televisions for all these years? And that’s what you concluded? The conclusions were exactly the opposite of what they are promoting in their propaganda. That’s an amazing thing and I think this is partly due to the internet and partly to the fact that people really have this need to find out.  You know Georgia was a hopeless case, I mean 7 years ago we were one of the criminalized countries in the world, one of the most corrupted ones, one of the desperate ones, in terms of citizens, people; Their past  and their future. We were one of the most problematic ones, you know, I would read papers in first after I came in power. Everything they wrote about Georgia, and this is a problem when you are called a Rose Revolution, when you are called Tulip Revolution, tulip has corn and with roses they always say: roses are red roses are tilted and there will always be articles and in the end there will be always only one line. “Georgia a tiny, impoverished, corruption-ridden, former Soviet republic. It was like they always find this.  Tiny, impoverished, corruption ridden. Look at the benchmarks are of what  we’ve achieved. We are the world’s number one economic reformer according to the World Bank. The World Bank is publishing a book that will publicize Georgia’s examples, worldwide success case in economic transformations. No other countries have made in terms of perceptions so much progress on TI’s listing as Georgia in the last five years, so we are world’s number one fighter with corruption, we have according to the Canadian Center of Law and Democracy against based on local chapters on transpirecy international we have the second most efficient and transparent democracy in the world, after New Zealand. We have the safest country in Europe. We had one of the most dangerous countries in Europe, we are the safest, and we competed with Iceland for the last several years. Now we are  ahead of Iceland, I am happy to report, but still half of the organized crime bosses in our neighboring countries are coming to Georgia ethnically. So that’s why after the Russian embargo, all our products in 2006, we started to export to Russia, you know we had embargo on electricity, gas and embargo on selling our goods to Russia, who no longer give us energy at some moments  some and they would never buy  our products. Now only two products we are exporting to them is electricity and organized crime bosses . Look at the other benchmarks. We had 52% poverty when we took over. With now less than 17% and it's another type of poverty. They all get insurance and also poverty assistance. We have one of the highest degrees of trust in institutions according to EBRD.  You know like seven years ago only 5% of Georgian trusted police now is 86% according to the last poll. 7 years ago 98% of Georgians said that they encountered daily basis corruption - 98%. Now is 0.2%.

There are doctors who are still taking money from patients. But now we just build, actually private sector just build 150 ultra-modern hospitals in Georgia, which means that even that will disappear. It will be totally legalized.

So these are the things. They are sometimes very hard to be seen by outsiders, especially if you are little bit nosy international NGO-s, let's be frank . But if you are in Kirgizstan you get it outright and you get what really is happening. If you are in Russia you get it. IF you are in Ukraine and Moldova you certainly get it.

What’s happening is an amazing example of transformation. Of course we’ve been learning, we’ve been learning a lot from Estonia, we’ve been learning from other countries in transition, but we will be trying also to promote our own examples. Because real revolution is not about roses slogans, you know, television coverage. Real revolution starts when CNN cameras live, when they wind down their presence. And that's when  you really go to the business of government.

And this is the most boring and most particular, but something you just have to not wait for and be very intelligent and be radical every day.

They often ask me what we regret the most of our government experience. The biggest thing I always regretted is any compromises I made and we made as a team in a process of reforms.

Compromise when you make reforms and you will find out that they don’t work. Every time you make a compromise it will come back and hit you with very big wars.

So, this is what it brings because the revolution is just, as I said, just benchmarks. Tt's a mental revolution. How people see themselves. The way they approach institutions in fact. Georgia, we build basically 90% of police, justice, buildings are new, the same for customs, the same for patrol police. What you like about them? They are all glass. They are all transparent.

This is another way to approach things. How you look, how people dress, how things change, and that's why I believe, that in there were two models that emerged in Post-Soviet world. One- kind of chaos; people get killed in the streets - poverty, oligarchs acquiring property, and then there was Putin kind of order. You know, there is much less crime in the beginning. Oligarchs were put under the government. And there is appearance like you were not going to hell. I think, only these two ways can be in the Post-Soviet world. Even if you want to be democratic; chaotic like Yeltsin did it or you need to have order.

Like Putin did, however there is small Georgia emerged that showed exactly the other way. I mean I resigned after a popular protest, because the people were protesting against the reforms, ok, we had new elections, that were free and fair and again we were reelected, with much less margine than before, you can have freedom of media, we have wild freedom of media, as it should be, we can have all kind of diverse opinions and you can still go on. Georgia showed that you can have democracy, you can have prosperity and you can have order, we have four times less crime rate, than Russia.

This is growing, because stability is evaporating, there is no stability in a swamp, if you want to have stability in a swam you get drawn there, you’ll get sucked in, that’s what is happening to so called stability, because once the government start to sell stability to their people you know they are surely in trouble, they have nothing else to offer to them as a prospect for future, the only thing we had promoted and offered is reforms, further changes and only governments offer something you all the time and they periodically leave up their own promises and expectations from their own people. From that point of view I think this kind of stability authoritarian model for former Soviet world is hopelessly sick and my prediction it will collapse everywhere, there is much where all this pundits and you know “political science experts”. I remember it when nobody, no brake Soviet logistic ever predicted collapse of the Soviet Union, nobody.

The great Lech Walesa predicted this and even did it with his own hends, but there were scientists who were thinking - Yes, but this is not doable. The same thing now, I read articles every day, I was reading it all the way in plane, nobody against this, they just all still go for former criteria they are always behind the events. I think you should go and talk to the people on the ground and certainly there will be and lots of you do it and you understand what I’m talking about.

And again coming back to our issue, there is a crisis in EU and certainly there are lots of people in EU who say that EU has no future. You see that Eurasian Union is being formed and there is time to bring back Soviet Union. They think that Europe is weak, America has its own problems. Now it is time to reenact the Soviet Union and then we are back with new force, with gas pipes and new Soviet Union here, but again the reality is that Eurasian Union has no future, no matter who is signing what, no matter who is saying what. I mean there is no future about it. European Union still has only one attraction, and is the only alternative force for all of us, all of us former Soviet countries. And from that point of view, EU is still projecting stability, peace, democracy, all the values we are proud of.

We are part of eastern partnership and it’s very important what we get now is saying that ok, no matter what we get problems in Europe are, doors should not close, because what we saw with Poland, with Estonia, with some of a new members, that’s where the growth is, that’s where the future is so the problems did not come in new countries and problem came in established countries already for a long, long decades, because of its measure. I think there is much more enthusiasm in new countries and there is much more sound policy in many ways, because there is enthusiasm and there is freshness in this new countries. So again if we have to choose between this Eurasian Union and Europe for us there is no alternative, there is no hesitation and in my region there is no other name. There is the way of future and that is called Europe.

Thank you.