From email

"...Russian imperialism is longstanding and deep-rooted. Vladimir Palkin (Putin) is a worthy successor to Nikolai Palkin (Tsar Nicholas I, whose militaristic expansionism was so pronounced that it both earned him the name of Nikolai Palkin – Ramrod Nick – and led to the Crimean War from 1854 to 1856 in an attempt to check Russia’s insatiable appetite for territory and domination). Georgia had three years of independence after the 1917 Revolution before the Red Army reconquered it for the new Russian Empire (a.k.a. the USSR) in 1921 and then suppressed a revolt in 1924. With perestroika the natives became restless again leading to mass demonstrations for independence in Tbilisi which were suppressed bloodily in April 1989 as reported in Wikipedia thus:

'The Soviet detachment, armed with military batons and metal shovels, advanced on demonstrators by encircling them from all sides leaving only a narrow pathway to pull back. During the advance, the soldiers started to attack demonstrators with small metal military shovels, inflicting injuries both minor and serious to anyone who was struck. One of the victims of the attack was a 16 year old girl who tried to get away from the advancing soldiers, but was chased down and beaten to death near the steps of the government building, receiving blows to the head and chest. She was dragged out of the area by her mother who was also attacked and wounded. This particularly violent attack was recorded on video from the balcony of a building located on the other side of the avenue… Twenty people, mainly young girls and older women, were killed and over 4,000 were injured due to toxic gas and injuries received from violent beating by batons and shovels… On April 10, the Soviet government issued a statement blaming the demonstrators for causing unrest and danger for the safety of the public. The next day, the Georgian TV showed the bodies of the 19 women violently killed, demonstrating that extreme brutality was used by the Soviet soldiers, as the faces of the deceased women were hard to identify due to the facial injuries and blows to the head…'"