Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has urged Georgians to fulfill their “historic mission” to “liberate” the country.
“Our historic mission is to carry out until the end the struggle for the liberation of Georgia…our common country,” Saakashvili said in an address aired on Saturday across Georgia.
Saakashvili, who is currently in Colombia, was speaking on the second anniversary of the start of Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia, which led to a five-day war with Russia.
Two weeks after the end of the war, Russia recognized both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which both split from Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. So far, only Venezuela, Nicaragua and the tiny island nation of Nauru have followed suit.
The Georgian leader also said that in 2008 the country’s “children” had been obliged to sacrifice their lives to defend the country’s “freedom and future.”
South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity dismissed earlier on Saturday Georgian accusations that the stationing of Russian forces in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia after August 2008 meant that the republics had transformed into nothing more than gigantic Russian military bases in the Caucasus region.
“This is absurd,” he said. “We signed these intergovernmental deals ourselves and asked Russia’s leaders to deploy the bases - this is normal international practice.”
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday he was sure Russia did the right thing when it fought Georgia and recognized the breakaway republics.
"Revisiting the events of two years ago, I would like to say that I consider all the decisions made at the time to be absolutely warranted and justified," Medvedev said.
Medvedev also reiterated Russia's readiness to restore relations with Georgia after the departure of Saakashvili.
"We cannot have normal relations with Georgia under the present leader," he said.
TBILISI, August 7 (RIA Novosti)
