Exiled in hip NYC neighborhood, Georgia’s ex-president plans a future

Georgia’s former president is spending his self-imposed exile in one of New York City’s hippest neighborhoods. The New York Times reports Saturday that Mikhail Saakashvili passes the days in the borough of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood. The neighborhood along the East River boasts views of the Manhattan skyline and is home to dozens of cafes, trendy restaurants and moneyed hipsters. Initially, Saakashvili was heralded for instituting liberal reforms. He now faces charges of illegally breaking up a protest, taking over a television station and seizing the property of a businessman.

They are hipsters. But they are still making tons of money, and they live a pleasant lifestyle and make it in life. They are no longer a marginal part of society.

Mikhail Saakashvili to The New York Times on Williamsburg’s demographic makeup

According to The New York Times, when not out in the trendy neighborhood, Saakashvili spends much of his time “plotting a triumphant return [to politics], even as his steep fall from grace serves as a cautionary tale to the many American government officials who had hoped he would be a model exporter of democracy to former Soviet republics.” The Times report also notes that Saakashvili believes the ongoing conflict in Ukraine should prompt a reassessment of “his own reputation as a reckless leader.”

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