On Tuesday, Georgia condemned the Russian “aggressor” and demanded an “end to the occupation” of two Georgian regions (South Ossetia and Abkhazia) on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the five-day war with Russia in August 2008. according to AFP and Agerpres.

“We knew for a long time that Russia was the aggressor, we know it, and the whole world knows it,” Georgian Prime Minister Iraklii Garibashvili told reporters.

At the same time, on Tuesday, Garibashvili accused the former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, of provoking the war in South Ossetia in 2008, which led to Russian military intervention and Moscow’s recognition of this separatist region, as well as Abkhazia, reports EFE.

“It is obvious that this misfortune, this tragedy, this war took place under the previous government. They did nothing to prevent this war,” he condemned during a visit to the Mujatgverdi cemetery in Tbilisi, where soldiers who died during that conflict are buried.

Garibashvili said on Tuesday, on the 15th anniversary of the August 2008 five-day war, that the Georgian military had shown “great heroism and selflessness” but that Georgia had also seen the “shameful actions of supreme commander” Saakashvili.

In this regard, the prime minister mentioned the footage of the former leader of Georgia chewing his tie and others, which, according to him, demonstrate his cowardice.

The head of the Georgian government said earlier on Tuesday in a Facebook post on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of those events that Tbilisi “remains committed to the peaceful path of restoring the territorial integrity and reunification of the country.”

“We have an unshakable belief that a peaceful, united, strong and developed Georgia is the best prospect for Georgians, Ossetians, Abkhazians, for all peoples living on our land, and we are doing everything to make this goal a reality as soon as possible.” , – he added.

How the Russian-Georgian war unfolded in 2008

On August 8, 2008, Georgian troops entered South Ossetia – a separatist territory with a population of just 30,000 – to retake control of the rebel-held region, saying they had to act immediately as Moscow prepared to occupy the region, according to one version of events at the time.

Russia responded with airstrikes on Georgian military targets on the country’s territory in the Caucasus and deployed troops to South Ossetia in an operation the Kremlin called “peace enforcement” that pushed Georgians out of the region.

Dissatisfied with the result, Russian troops invaded Georgian territory in both South Ossetia and separatist Abkhazia, pushing their tanks as far as the town of Gori, just 75 kilometers from Tbilisi, before withdrawing from the former Soviet republic entirely.

The Kremlin later recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a decision also supported by Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria, but which was largely condemned by the international community.

Tbilisi, which then severed diplomatic relations with Moscow, continues not to recognize the independence of the two territories and considers Russian troops to be occupation forces.

In the August 2008 war, Georgia lost 412 people, including 170 soldiers and employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Russia suffered 67 military losses during its attack on the Georgian army.

According to available information, the then president of Georgia, Mykhailo Saakashvili, gave the order for a military operation in South Ossetia on August 7, 2008 at 11:35 p.m. A number of sources indicate that the Russian regular army had already invaded Georgia at that time, although Moscow claims that it entered Georgia on August 8, 2008, according to the Georgian portal Netgazeti.ge.

The current authorities in Tbilisi are accused of pro-Moscow sympathies

The Georgian opposition accuses the current government of authoritarian drift and pro-Moscow sympathies against the background of the war in Ukraine, which has led to the deterioration of Tbilisi’s relations with both Kyiv and the West.

In addition, it claims that the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, a former prime minister, will actually be a “shadow leader” in Tbilisi and a promoter of Kremlin interests in Georgia, as Deutsche Welle recently reported in Russia.​

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