In his speech on February 24 in the Slovak capital Bratislava, U.S. President George W. Bush praised Georgia’s Rose Revolution and Orange Revolution in Ukraine as “landmark events in the history of liberty.”

Bush made his address to the Slovaks in a Bratislava square ahead of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, scheduled for February 24.

“In recent times, we have witnessed landmark events in the history of liberty, a Rose Revolution in Georgia, an Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and now, a Purple Revolution in Iraq,” President Bush said.

“We must be equally determined and also patient. The advance of freedom is the concentrated work of generations. It took almost a decade after the Velvet Revolution [in 1989 that defeated communism in then Czechoslovakia] for democracy to fully take root in this country. And the democratic revolutions that swept this region over 15 years ago are now reaching Georgia and Ukraine. In 10 days, Moldova has the opportunity to place its democratic credentials beyond doubt as its people head to the polls. And inevitably, the people of Belarus will someday proudly belong to the country of democracies,” he added.

“Victory in this struggle will not come easily or quickly, but we have reason to hope. Iraqis have demonstrated their courage and their determination to live in freedom, and that has inspired the world. It is the same determination we saw in Kiev's Independent Square, in Tbilisi's Freedom Square,” George W. Bush stated.