Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili gave interview to the US magazine Newsweek in which he described his perception of the Russian-Georgian relations and told of the dangers of a new attack invasion of Georgia by Moscow.
Asked whether the Georgian leader feels that the US forgot about Georgia, Saakashvili answered negatively. He noted that so far Georgia had been getting support from Washington. As Saakashvili underlined, at every high-level meeting, America had been raising the Georgia issue.
Recently, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the Russia’s presence in Georgian regions as “illegal occupation”. According to Saakashvili, Georgia, in fact, has been a testing ground for further improvement of relations between the US and Russia.
Asked whether Washington should restart its supply of lethal military aid to Georgia, the president said that there was a real danger of attack on Georgia from Russia. “Georgia can’t attack Russia, while an unprotected Georgia is a big temptation for Russia to change our government through military means”, Saakashvili said.
Every time the current Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has run for president, he has gone to war before that, the Georgian leader added. That is why now, in anticipation of presidential elections in Russia in 2012, Saakashvili is worried about security and integrity of his country. According to Saakashvili, in such difficult conditions, Tbilisi hopes that the US will help Georgia with defense-weapons capabilities.
The president of Georgia also offered “to internationalize” the withdrawal of Russia’s troops from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He noted that Georgia wanted to avoid another military conflict with Russia, but Moscow might be planning something. According to Saakashvili, right now, there is less of a threat than it was one year ago. What helps here is an improved U.S.-Russia balance.
Asked whether the United States gave security assurances to Georgia of a new Russian attack, Saakashvili said that no formal security assurances were given. According to the Georgian leader, he sees now much more diplomacy to avoid a new conflict.
As Saakashvili stressed in the interview, Moscow is not going to lead a full two-way dialogue with Tbilisi, while Georgia is ready for it. Moscow has not only occupied 20% of the Georgian territory, but also deployed S-300 missiles in Abkhazia, Saakashvili said. It is to be recalled that the missiles were deployed in Abkhazia in early August 2008.
Kazbegi news 