Russia had no intention to occupy Tbilisi, topple Saakashvili in Aug 2008 – Medvedev

Tblisi, Georgia, File Photo with Building with Tower on Hillside and City Buildings in Valley in Distance

(Interfax – MOSCOW, Aug 4, 2013) The Russian government had no intention to occupy Tbilisi and topple the Mikheil Saakashvili regime in its peace enforcement operation against Georgia in August 2008, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.

“As the Supreme Commander in Chief I never gave an order to enter Tbilisi, change their political regime and execute Saakashvili,” Medvedev, the Russian President of that period, said in an interview with the Russia Today channel on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict.

“We were not fighting Georgia. We needed to protect the interests of the Russian Federation. I never cared about his (Saakashvili’s) personal destiny. I always proceeded from the premise that the people of Georgia would determine his future. And I have to say that in my opinion they have practically determined it,” the Russian premier said.

“It was not an inter-state war or, especially, a war between the people of Russia and the people of Georgia. It was a peace enforcement operation and it had absolutely local goals,” he said.

“Precisely such situations test the genuine intentions of a state. We did not have the goal of replacing their regime in the first place even though Mr. Saakashvili is an absolutely non-handshakable person for me and my colleagues for the apparent reasons. I also think he is a war criminal,” the Russian premier said.

As to the Russian air strikes on a number of Georgian cities, Medvedev said they had no strategic value but aimed to disarm the enemy.

“This is neither a strategic value nor “whatever happened, happened”, this is just “all is fair at war.” We had to disable the military sites of the enemy that could do harm to the Russian army, the civilian population, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and citizens of the Russian Federation,” Medvedev said.

The premier stressed that the air strikes “did not target civilian sites no matter what the Saakashvili propaganda might have been claiming.” “It was solely the question of incapacitation of military facilities, including airports so that it was impossible to send aircraft, hardware and so on. But it was not a strategic plan and certainly not a spontaneous decision,” the prime minister said.

“We restored the order the way it was supposed to be and left. We did not change their political regime and did not foster our men because we thought it was wrong to change the political structure and put in office people suitable for us in violation of the UN Charter,” Medvedev said.

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