Outgoing Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is viewed by many as a divisive leader who has made both important accomplishments for his country and presided over negative developments, including a humiliating war with Russia. Here is a retrospective gallery of Saakashvili from 2003 to 2013. (20 PHOTOS)
Saakashvili Retrospective 2003-13
1
Mikheil Saakashvili (second from the left), opposition National Movement leader Zurab Zhvania (left), and parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze (third from left), leaders of the opposition bloc Burjanadze-Democrats, meet Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze (right) in Tbilisi on November 9, 2003. Shevardnadze tried to ease tensions over allegations of election fraud by meeting with opposition leaders.
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Georgian opposition supporters hold portraits of opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili during a rally outside the parliament in Tbilisi on November 10, 2003.
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Georgian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili (right), surrounded by bodyguards, leaves after a meeting with President Eduard Shevardnadze at the president's residence in Tbilisi on November 23, 2003. Shevardnadze announced his resignation days later, bowing to opposition protesters who stormed parliament and declared a Rose Revolution in the former Soviet republic.
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Presidential candidate Mikheil Saakashvili casts his ballot at the polling station in Tbilisi on January 4, 2004.
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Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (left) talking to Aslan Abashidze (right), leader of the autonomous region of Ajara, during a meeting in Batumi on March 18, 2004. Abashidze, a former Communist Party official, ran Ajara as his personal fiefdom for more than a decade. He relinquished power and fled Georgia in May 2004, an event considered a major victory for Saakashvili.
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Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili salutes while he watches a military parade during his inauguration ceremony in Tbilisi on January 25, 2004. Saakashvili, 37, was Europe's youngest head of state when he was sworn in.
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The head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Catholicos Ilia II (right), blesses newly elected President Mikheil Saakashvili at the Gelati Cathedral in Kutaisi on January 24, 2004.
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The new Georgian flag flies in parliament during its session in Tbilisi on January 14, 2004. Georgia adopted a new national flag shortly after Saakashvili was elected president.
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Ukrainian President-elect Viktor Yushchenko (left) and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (right) greet residents of the Ukranian capital for the New Year on January 1, 2005 at Independence Square in Kyiv.
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President Mikheil Saakashvili (left) and U.S. President George W. Bush (right) wave to the crowd in Tbilisi on May 10, 2005. The peaceful resolution of conflicts is "essential" for Georgia to be integrated into the West, Bush told the tens of thousands of people in the crowd.
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President Mikheil Saakashvili visits an orphanage in Tbilisi on January 23, 2006.
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Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili sings the national anthem with children in Kodori Gorge, a section of the rebel Georgian region of Abkhazia controlled at the time by Georgian forces (September 27, 2006).
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President Mikheil Saakashvili delivers a speech during the NATO Parliamentary Assembly 65th Rose-Roth seminar in Tbilisi on April 19, 2007. Saakashvili said that in 2007 Georgia would be ready for the next stage of integration into NATO and expected to become a candidate for membership "in the nearest months."
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President Mikheil Saakashvili speaks to an injured Georgian soldier during a visit to a military hospital in Gori, about 80 kilometers from Tbilisi, on August 7, 2008. Russia accused Georgia of triggering clashes with South Ossetian rebels and Russian forces in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.
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A screen grab shows President Mikheil Saakashvili addressing the nation in Tbilisi on August 10, 2008. Saakashvili insisted that his country's troops had pulled out of South Ossetia, and appealed for U.S. diplomatic intervention for the sake of "world order."
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President Mikheil Saakashvili, in a camouflage bulletproof vest, visits the town of Gori on August 11, 2008, to examine damage resulting from the armed conflict between Russia and Georgia over the Georgian breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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President Mikheil Saakashvili addresses the European Parliament in Strasbourg on November 23, 2010.
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Georgian police use water cannons and tear gas during clashes with protesters in Tbilisi on May 26, 2011. Riot police dispersed several hundred opposition protesters demanding the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili.
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President Mikheil Saakashvili (left) greets Bidzina Ivanishvili, prime minister nominee and Georgian Dream coalition leader, before their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Tbilisi on October 9, 2012.
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President Mikheil Saakashvili addresses people during a rally held by United National Movement party supporters in Tbilisi on April 19, 2013.