Even more than the rest of impoverished Georgia, sub-tropical Ajaria ought to be prosperous.

ECONOMIST: Ajaria, a Georgian success story

NATO, and is now the border between Turkey and the republic of Ajaria in Georgia.

ECONOMIST: Ajaria, a Georgian success story

Under Aslan Abashidze, Mr Varshalomidze's predecessor as Ajaria's boss, the crossing often took an hour and several bribes.

ECONOMIST: Ajaria, a Georgian success story

Its leader, Aslan Abashidze, runs an odd and throughly autocratic mini-state, Ajaria, on the Black Sea border with Turkey.

ECONOMIST: Ukraine and Georgia

Where Mr Abashidze was habitually accompanied by a phalanx of black-clad toughs, Mr Varshalomidze strolls around Batumi, Ajaria's capital, with a lone bodyguard.

ECONOMIST: Ajaria, a Georgian success story

Elections are expected to be held in Ajaria next month.

ECONOMIST: The comic opera ends | The

Having reasserted control over Ajaria, Mr Saakashvili can now get his hands on its port, which handles 200, 000 barrels of oil per day, and a busy customs post on the border with Turkey.

ECONOMIST: The comic opera ends | The

Mr Saakashvili had to tread carefully in Ajaria because of a sprawling ex-Soviet base near Batumi, a legacy of the days when this was a cold-war frontier between the Red Army and Turkey, a NATO member.

ECONOMIST: The comic opera ends | The

In Ajaria, his tactics worked.

ECONOMIST: The comic opera ends | The

Some problems are largely beyond Mr Shevardnadze's control, such as the private fief of Ajaria in the south, the two regions on the northern border which have struggled, with Russian help, to secede, and the Chechen rebels who use northern Georgia as a haven of last resort.

ECONOMIST: Edward Shevardnadze, Georgia��s foxy president