Georgiaʼs pro-government party "Georgian Dream" once again blamed its main opponent in the elections — the United National Movement party and its leader Mikheil Saakashvili — in the 2008 war.
The police issued a corresponding statement on August 13.
In it, the ruling party of Georgia, in particular, refers to the interview of the head of the EU international commission investigating the causes of the war in Georgia Heidi Tagliavini.
Her words, as "Georgian Dream" says, allegedly confirm that the actions of the then Georgian authorities provoked Russia.
"According to Tagliaviniʼs conclusion, the Saakashvili government created such a moment on August 7, 2008, when an artillery attack on Tskhinvali freed Russiaʼs hands, and the Russian army entered Georgia," the statement said.
It is about the fact that on the night of August 7-8, 2008, Georgia announced the start of a military offensive on the "capital" of self-proclaimed South Ossetia Tskhinvali in order to "restore constitutional order." In response, on August 8, the then president of Russia Dmytrii Medvedev informed about the start of an operation to "enforce peace" by sending troops into the country.
Saakashviliʼs actions in the "Georgian Dream" were called "adventurous" and "controlled from the outside and a well-planned betrayal."
Such accusations against Saakashvili are not the first time. In 2022, the Prime Minister of Georgia Iraklii Garibashvili stated that "former President Saakashviliʼs unreasonable policy, his ill-considered provocative steps caused the fact that they could not prevent this tragic war."
- Abkhazia and South Ossetia spontaneously declared independence from Georgia in 1992. This happened with active military support from Russia, which later led to an open war with Tbilisi. After the five-day war between the Russian Federation and Georgia, in August 2008, the Kremlin recognized the "independence" of the regions, although the majority of the world community still recognizes Georgiaʼs sovereignty.
- Mikheil Saakashvili was the president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013. He renounced his Georgian citizenship in 2013 and became a citizen of Ukraine. In 2021, he returned to Georgia, where he was arrested, because by that time Saakashvili had been convicted in absentia. Now the ex-president is in prison.