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This is Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation statement on 8 November 2007 - for the first time (we believe) with English subtitles.

The contrast with the statement of the previous day (see here) could hardly be clearer.

As is so often the case with Saakashvili when he felt weak (as on 7 November) he appeared contrite and conciliatory, saying the day before that he thought the vast majority of the opposition were patriots and not involved in any foreign conspiracy.

Now that his police force have beaten the opposition off the streets, smashed up the country's most popular TV station and demonstrated that they are able to act above the law in association with masked and armed gangs, he feels confident enough to change his story and label the events of the previous day as a defence of democracy against a pre-planned foreign attack.

The anti-pluralist mindset of the president is also apparent: he regards the fact that no-one of any significance disagrees with him or is able to exert significant influence in the state is a good thing. Overall the speech feels more like the Czar telling his subjects how good he is to them rather than that of a democratic president asking for a new endorsement.

Once again we have used Civil.ge's translation. Let us know of any errors or omissions.

Update: Unfortunately the first upload suffered from sychronisation problems, hopefully the version here now is better, but the poor quality of the original video remains - though we have cleaned up the sound somewhat. If you want your own copy you can download an AVI file from here.