PM Garibashvili slams ex-Pres Saakashvili for his post-August war “pro-Russian” moves

A few months after the Russia-Georgia 2008 August war, then President Mikheil Saakashvili began to transfer strategic facilities to Russian state organizations, unilaterally canceled the visa-free regime for Russian citizens, and after the war did not take any action to organize sanctions, Georgia PM Irakli Garibashvili said on Monday, on the 14th anniversary of Russia’s war in Georgia. 

“When they [Saakashvili and his party members] come out today and pretend to be great patriots, I want to remind them these facts”, Garibashvili said. 

In his previous comments, Garibashvili said that the current state authorities carried a “reasonable policy” to prevent hostilities and ensure the “peaceful reintegration of occupied regions”. 

Defence Minister Juansher Burchuladze suggested on Monday that if the international community had had proper and “principled” position to Russia’s war in Georgia 14 years ago, it would have prevented Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine. 

Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021, after eight years in political exile.