Georgia’s success story may have sting in its tale

Ten miles from Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, sits the smallish city of Rustavi. It doesn’t look as if it could or should be home to one of mankind’s more daring socioeconomic experiments, but it is. On the edge of this nondescript settlement, once home to generations of Soviet-era steel workers, sits a series of parking lots, each filled to bursting with second-hand cars.

Every conceivable make of automobile is here: Mercedes-Benz and BMW, Toyota Land Cruisers and boxy little Kias, souped-up Range Rovers and bulked-out Minis.