Saakashvili Speaks of Russian Bases, WWII ‘Immoral Deals’

In separate interviews to CNN and Rustavi 2 on May 8, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili explained once again that he is not specifically boycotting the Moscow celebrations marking the end of World War II, but refused to attend the ceremonies on May 9 because there was no progress in talks over the pull out of two Russian bases from Georgia.

In an interview with CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer” Saakashvili also spoke about the consequences of World War II for the small nations of former Soviet Union and condemned the results of the Yalta conference in 1945 as “one of the most immoral deals in the history of mankind.”

“Keeping small nations enslaved because of the deals between the great nations or because of any pragmatic considerations that might have been there are totally unacceptable,” Saakashvili told CNN.

“On the one hand, we knew what an evil was fascism, and we respect the people who defeated that and took part in the defeat of fascists. But on the other hand, we had Soviet totalitarian regimes that kept all those people in Eastern Europe … enslaved,” he added.

Saakashvili is not among those dozens of world leaders who attend the celebrations marking Day of Victory in Moscow. 
 
“A dignified leader of a state should make decisions similar to the one which I have made… I hoped to reach an agreement over the military bases, which is one of the last Soviet legacies [in Georgia], but we failed to agree. Yesterday [on May 7] we had positive talks with President Putin and we have a real chance to agree, but I will be ready to have much better relations [with Russia] when we see [results over the issue of bases’ withdrawal],” Mikheil Saakashvili told Rustavi 2 television on May 8.

“Now there is nothing to celebrate in Moscow for Georgia,” Saakashvili added.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)