Russia started thinking about military intervention in Georgia in 2007

Russia started to think about military intervention in Georgia in 2007, Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia, stated at a meeting with members of the Parliament Bureau held late on the evening of August 24. Mikheil Saakashvili said that Russia withdrew from the agreement placing a limitation on conventional arms in 2007, and thereby discharged itself from any obligation regarding locating heavy equipment in the Caucasus. Active preparation for the invasion must have been launched several months ago, otherwise such a rapid intervention would not have been possible, the President of Georgia said.

At the same meeting the President outlined the chronology of Georgian-Russian relations over the last five years. He recalled that he chose to make his first official visit as President to Moscow. “It was a felicitous meeting with Putin. We talked honestly. The Russian side’s first request implied control over our borders. We launched joint monitoring. We assisted them to regulate the situation in the North Caucasus”, Mikheil Saakashvili stressed. As for developments in Adjara, the President of Georgia remarked that Russia did not support him in this regard. “After Aslan Abashidze escaped from Adjara, I had a phone conversation with Putin. He stated that Russia had not interfered in the developments in Adjara, but stressed that it would not refuse to get involved in South Ossetia and Abkhazia”, Saakashvili stated.