“In 2008, we saved Georgia,” Georgia’s third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, wrote on his Facebook page.
According to the former president, for those who celebrated the “victory” of 2012, that was precisely Georgia’s “historical disaster, and what Russia failed to take with its army, it received through internal betrayal.”
“While a torrent of Russian propaganda descends upon you today and tomorrow — in 2008, we saved Georgia:
- The Georgian people, who united into a single fist (what Georgian Dream calls a ‘concert’)
- The heroism of the Georgian Armed Forces (what Georgian Dream calls ‘PR’)
- Our friends — Kaczyński, Yushchenko, Adamkus, Holbrooke, Bildt, Matthew Bryza, and others (whom Georgian Dream accuses of unleashing the war)
- The fact that I did not leave Georgia, that I led the resistance, engaged all my international contacts, and convinced America of the need for direct intervention (everything that for Georgian Dream is a ‘frightened Misha crawling on the ground’)
- And, of course, the George W. Bush administration and their armed-to-the-teeth 6th Fleet (about which Georgian Dream claims they merely brought ‘water and diapers’)
“Georgian Dream lies when it says I celebrated victory in front of the people back then. Our people died, villages were destroyed — we had nothing to celebrate.
But in August 2008, Russia truly suffered a defeat at the hands of Georgia and the democratic world. It failed to achieve either the capture of Tbilisi or its other strategic goals — in particular, halting Georgia’s successful development.
Whereas that ‘victory’ of 2012 which you celebrated — that was precisely Georgia’s historical disaster, and what Russia failed to take with its army, it obtained through internal betrayal. No matter, we will still have the last word!” wrote Saakashvili.
