IT WAS a rare point of agreement in the country's polarised politics: on March 7th, 2013, the Georgian parliament adopted a bi-partisan resolution in support of the country's pro-western course.
One well-informed source said that within the elite tough questions are urgently being asked about the wisdom of the new anti-western course being pursued and about the efficacy of the president's policies.
But most analysts agreed on one thing: Mr. Guriev falls into a category of power brokers who disagree with the Kremlin's anti-Western course and intense consolidation of power, but who have generally remained quiet about political changes.
It would be better for the Americans to do more to counter the PKK in northern Iraq and for Turkey to renew its earlier efforts to improve the lot of Kurds in its south-east.Keeping Turkey on its pro-Western course is vital, not just for Iraq, but for the sake of all Turks, including the country's own big Kurdish population.
But as he prepares to welcome global leaders to the G20 summit in St Petersburg next week, it is ever more obvious that, whether in international diplomacy over Syria or on domestic issues like the jailing of opposition leaders or gay rights, he is on an explicitly anti-Western course.
"It's very clear to see the desire to pressure the Ukrainian politicians, and pressure them that if they continue to pursue a pro-Western course and not adhere to the rules imposed by Moscow on the post-Soviet space, they will face difficulties," he said.
Although Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has courted both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in an attempt to chart a more pro-Western course, Russia may turn out to be a valuable source of financial assistance if the right olive branch can be proffered.
Ben Ali seized power from Habib Bourguiba, the founder of modern-day Tunisia who set the Muslim country on a pro-Western course after independence from France in 1956.
The once controversial "Western Civ" course isn't even mentioned.
