Getting my Georgia fix
Another country with more interesting politics than Germany: Georgia. A mess of opposition groups are planning protests at the end of next week, calling on President Saakashvili to resign. Didn't do them much good the last time they tried it, back in 2007: Saakashvili called a quick election, won it easily, and then went back to his usual melange of market fundamentalism, temper tantrums, and russia-baiting. Maybe this time the opposition have a plan, but I wouldn't count on it.
Saakashvili, meanwhile, is trying to undermine these opponents, by accusing them of planning armed revolt, and of being Russian catspaws - the latter because a politician's husband met a Russian official around the time of an exiles' get-together in Vienna a fortnight ago. One theory is that Russia is intervening just enough to keep the Georgian politicans fighting like cats in a bag.
And for the people who want to forget politics, and pretend the world is all about tanks and pipelines? Well, I have a sneaking fear they're right. The Russian army are planning a military build-up in the separatist region of Abkhazia, while the US are making promising noises about training the Georgian army.
That's just the boring side of things; the ridiculous bits are better not written about on April Fools' Day.