“As a result of the crime committed by the regime of the United National Movement against its own state and people, Russia occupied 20% of Georgia’s territory and recognized historical regions of Georgia as independent states,” Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze stated at a briefing at the government administration.
According to him, this gamble by Georgia’s third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, was a direct directive from the “Deep State,” whose primary hallmark is pitting countries against each other internationally and dragging them into war, while radicalizing society and inciting civil conflict domestically.
“18 years have passed since the greatest tragedy in Georgia’s modern history — the Russo-Georgian war of August 2008 — yet the pain and heavy scar of those days have not faded to this day. The August war claimed hundreds of lives, left tens of thousands of citizens homeless, and confronted Georgia with the even harsher reality of territorial occupation. Despite the years that have passed, the consequences of the war are still felt today, and the memory of the fallen and the pain of internally displaced persons remain an integral part of our society’s collective memory and responsibility. <…>
Naturally, no one harbors illusions that Saakashvili and the United National Movement, acting as agents of the ‘Deep State’ in Georgia, took or are taking any steps independently.”
According to Kobakhidze, these actions resulted in the deaths of Georgian military personnel, police officers, and civilians, forced about 30,000 people to flee their homes, left more than one hundred settlements beyond the occupation line, and led Russia to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“Despite this, Russophobic sentiments did not take root in Georgia after the August 2008 war, which, of course, happened on the instructions of the ‘Deep State’ — just as the Georgian agency manifested radical anti-Russian sentiment only in 2022, following Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine,” Irakli Kobakhidze stated.
