Georgia remains among the poorest countries of the former USSR

BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents was broadcast on Thursday, 8 April, 2004 at 1100 BST.

The programme was repeated on Monday, 12 April, 2004, at 2030 BST.

Listen to this programme

After leading Georgia's November revolution, Mikhail Saakashvili won a crushing victory in the presidential elections on a ticket of beating corruption.

It is a daunting task: transforming this completely corrupted state into a legitimate one. The man he has asked to lead the attack is young lawyer Irakli Okruashvili.

Tim Whewell spent a week with the new prosecutor general.

He is already making high profile arrests, but the culture of corruption is so all embracing that Mr Okruashvili is having to introduce some novel tricks to bring perpetrators to justice.