Saakashvili: Russia’s Invasion was Inevitable

Russia’s military invasion of Georgia was “natural” and “inevitable,” President Saakashvili said at a live televised meeting with a group of students from Tbilisi State University on October 16.

He said that it was inevitable because in recent years Georgia had been creating “a state model” in Russia’s neighborhood that was totally unacceptable to Moscow.

Saakashvili said that during the Shevardnadze era, Georgia had been a failed state and so there was no need for Russia to resort to open military aggression.

“But when Georgia, which like Russia is an Orthodox country… started to develop and progress, it came as a surprise to them [the Russian leadership]; they could not have imagined such a development,” Saakashvili said. “We have better roads than Russia has; more tourists per capita than Russia; more five star hotels were being built in Georgia than in any Russian town… So an alternative model has emerged in their neighborhood.”

“So at a certain point, a Russian military invasion became inevitable,” he said. “What happened over the summer was natural and unfortunate.”

He also said that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir “Putin had not achieved his goals” by sending troops into Georgia.

“His goal was to overthrow the Georgian government and to destroy Georgian statehood,” he continued. “Unity plus development is the way to survive. Unity, however, does not mean that we should not have political discourse.”

Saakashvili said that international pressure had played a part, but “the only thing” that really stopped the Russian military advance in Georgia was “the resistance of the Georgian people.”

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