Nino Burjanadze, the former parliamentary speaker, said it was too early to say if the war with Russia could have been avoided.

“I need serious analysis. I need answers to the questions,” she said in an interview with Reuters on September 5 after speaking at Columbia University in New York.

When asked what would happen if it does turn out to have been avoidable, she said: “In this case, I wouldn't wish to be in the government's place.”

“I can say it's very difficult to imagine a good position for the president of a country that has such big problems,” Burjanadze said. “I don't think that he feels himself comfortable and well or stronger than he was before.”

“However, we, the Georgian people, do not consider the government as victims only and, of course, the time will come for a sober assessment of what went wrong in Georgia.”

She said that she had met with President Saakashvili “a few days before the crisis.”

“I expressed my views and my vision. I was sure that Russia would attack if there were any kind of military action from the Georgian side, and I saw that Russia wanted to provoke Georgia.”

“I always thought there was no military solution for Ossetia and Abkhazia because Russia will fight, Russia will send troops, Russia will send arms, Russia will send aircraft.”

“I understood that it would be a real disaster for my country,” she added.