Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Gharibashvili did not answer the question whether Russia’s aggression during the 2008 war was unprovoked. He was asked about this at the Global Security Forum in Bratislava.
When asked whether Russia’s aggression was unprovoked, Gharibashvili answered:
“I don’t want to talk about details on this issue because we have our opinion. If our government had been in place at the time, we would have done everything we could to avoid this war. Georgia is a small country with only 4 million inhabitants. It is well equipped and has a good army, but it is still a small country.
Therefore, I believe that it should be in the interests of any government [ომი რომ არ დაიწყოს]especially when a small country is not a member of the European Union or NATO, does not have security guarantees… I don’t want to go into details, but this war was devastating”, said Gharibashvili.
He also mentioned at the Global Security Forum that international sanctions should have been imposed on Russia after the 2008 war, but it was not. According to him, the war did not receive enough attention at the time and the world did not appreciate how devastating it was.
