Georgian parliamentarian slams Saakashvili recollection of U.S. role in August 2008 war

(Interfax – TBILISI. April 17, 2013) A member of the Georgian parliamentary majority harshly criticized some of President Mikheil Saakashvili’s recollections of details of the August 2008 war with Russia over South Ossetia in an interview shown on Rustavi-2 television.

“Saakashvili’s statement that the United States considered the possibility of bombarding the Roki Tunnel during the August war will certainly not improve relations between Georgia and the United States, between Georgia and Russia, and between the United States and Russia. This was an absolutely thoughtless and apolitical revelation on Saakashvili’s part,” parliamentary majority leader Levan Berdzenishvili told journalists on Wednesday.

Saakashvili said in the interview that former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney had told him recently that the United States considered the possibility of bombarding the Roki Tunnel through which Russian tanks entered Georgia during the August 2008 war.

“I told Cheney that he should recall more details about this and write this in his memoirs,” Saakashvili said.

The Georgian president said also that Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. secretary of state in 2008, “warned us not to fall for Russian provocations.”

“We then told the secretary of state: ‘We will not fall for provocations, but what will you do if the Russians start combat actions?’ Her answer was: ‘I don’t think they would do so’. We thought different,” Saakashvili said.