Saakashvili says he tried hard to avert war with Russia

Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has defended his role in the country's war with Russia five years ago, and criticised Tbilisi's government for partly blaming him for the conflict.

Mr Saakashvili has always insisted that he launched an assault on the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia late on August 7th, 2008, because local militia were attacking ethnic Georgian villages and Russian troops had secretly entered the area to support their separatist allies. Moscow counters that it only deployed troops in South Ossetia to halt Mr Saakashvili’s bid to reclaim it and to protect the many South Ossetians who had earlier been given Russian passports.

An independent report commissioned by the EU in 2009 blamed Georgia for starting the war, but said Russia’s response was disproportionate and violated international law.

Mr Saakashvili's actions have come under increasing scrutiny since his allies were ousted from government last autumn, and Georgian prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has supported a new inquiry into how the war began and was conducted. He says everyone who made key decisions, including Mr Saakashvili, must answer for their actions.

'No' to Nato membership
Mr Saakashvili told Georgian television this week that he did everything possible to avert war with Russia, and even offered "to say no to Nato membership [and] 'no' to enhanced ties with the US" in return for Moscow's help in restoring Tbilisi's control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another officially Georgian region that has run its own affairs for 20 years.

Russia rejected those overtures and continued preparing for a conflict aimed at the “complete destruction” of Georgia, Mr Saakashvili said. He claimed Russia “knew very well” that Georgia was poorly prepared militarily for the conflict, and he criticised Washington’s flawed reading of the situation in the Caucasus: “We were warning them that [war] would start and they were telling us ‘there is no chance’.”

The five-day war ended with an EU-brokered peace deal. Mr Saakashvili said a US decision to send military aircraft and warships to Georgia carrying aid helped rein in Russian ambitions.

He also criticised Mr Ivanishvili for saying Georgia was partly to blame for the conflict.

Mr Ivanishvili stated this week that his pragmatic approach to ties with Russia meant “ending the cold war rhetoric and avoiding the irresponsible actions that led us into the 2008 conflict”.

Of the investigation into Mr Saakashvili’s handling of the war, he said Georgians “need to know what really happened”.

“I have no desire to see him or others from his team arrested. But justice needs to be restored in this country, and the law needs to be equal for all.”