Ex-Georgian leader Saakashvili fully responsible for 2008 war – Medvedev
Reckless decisions have made Saakashvili a pariah in his own country, the former Russian president has said | Former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has paid the price for instigating the 2008 conflict with Russia, ending up as a pariah in his own country, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with RT and TASS news agency on Friday. ● The five-day war erupted on the night of August 8, 2008, when the US-backed Saakashvili sent troops into Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia, shelling the base of Russian peacekeepers in the process. Moscow recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region, on August 26, shortly after defeating the Georgian Army. ● Medvedev was president at the time, and ordered the Russian forces to intervene when the Georgian Army attacked Russian peacekeepers, who had been stationed in South Ossetia since the 1990s. He said that Saakashvili bears full responsibility for the bloodshed of 15 years ago.
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