Polls have closed in Georgia, the small Caucasus Republic that took center stage in the 2008 presidential campaign when Russian troops poured over the border there and threatened to topple the country’s pro-American government. With both sides claiming victory, the country of 4.5 million people may once again feature prominently in an American presidential campaign.  

Georgia’s pro-American government led by Mikhail Saakashvili is again on the brink, but this time it looks to have been defeated at the polls, even as it seems set to hold onto a slim majority in parliament. The challenger, billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili and his Georgian Dream coalition, have promised to reorient the country and to bring about a rapprochement with Moscow. Ivanishvili, who made his nearly $7 billion fortune in Russia, has been accused by Saakashvili’s party of being a Russian stooge. And indeed he has close ties to Vladimir Putin and remains the largest private shareholder in Russian gas-giant Gazprom.