TBILISI, May 19 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili said the instability that plagued the rule of former Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze would never return to the country despite the efforts of radical opposition groups.
Saakashvili said that corrupt former officials and business figures were trying to regain their influence in Georgia lost after the "Rose Revolution." But he said these attempts would fail "as now we have a different reality and Georgia will never go back to the past again."
"If some one misses [ex-president Eduard] Shevardnadze, they can go and visit him in Krtsanisi [residence in Tbilisi, where Shevardnadze now lives]," Saakashvili said late on Monday during a meeting with the pro-presidential parliamentary majority aired by Georgian television.
The president, who came to power in a wake of the "Rose Revolution" in November 2003, said Shevardnadze's resignation marked the end of a "dark epoch" in the history of Georgia.
Saakashvili reiterated that he had returned "real statehood" to Georgia, which had been lost for centuries, by resolving a variety of internal issues, including the fight against corruption, ensuring steady supplies of natural gas and electricity to the population, and construction of transport infrastructure.
He blamed the radical opposition for "creating a virtual reality that portrays the life in the country as bad."
Opposition groups, who first took to the streets in Tbilisi on April 9, are calling for Saakashvili to step down over his failure to carry out democratic reforms and last August's disastrous war with Russia.
According to media sources, Saakashvili offered at a recent meeting with opposition figures to cooperate on a variety of constitutional, judicial and election reforms. However, the opposition said the proposals were inadequate and called again for the president's resignation.
Saakashvili reiterated on Monday that there would be no early presidential or parliamentary elections in the country.
"It is unreal today to speak about early elections," he said. "Early elections will only contribute to the situation becoming more complicated."
The Georgian leader also said again that his current and second presidential term of office would be his last, as required by the Constitution.
Saakashvili was reelected to office in January 2008 early elections.
