On 11 March, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview that the former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili did not keep his word by promising to solve the issue of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) without the use of force, reported TASS.
“We talked with him many times about this when he was still president,” he said. He said that he asked Saakashvili that "in no case to try to resolve the issues of Tskhinvali and Abkhazia by force", and the former Georgian President promised to “never do this.”
Speaking about the current state of relations between Russia and Georgia, the Russian leader said that the Georgian authorities simply “jumped to the side” from Moscow. “And we have nothing to do with it. Let them say thanks to Mikhail Nikolaevich,” he added.
Mikheil Saakashvili already responded to Putin's words: “I think that he [Putin] remembered me yesterday, because he knows that my party will win the elections in Georgia, and this prevents him from sleeping at night".
On 30 September 2019, Saakashvili stated that he would come back to Georgia in several months to ‘end the leadership’ of the Georgian Dream government. He said he is holding consultations with politicians and other citizens of Georgia regarding the arrival. He stands accused in Georgia for the violent dispersal of anti-government mass protests on 7 November 2007; unlawful raiding of Imedi television company by riot police and the illegal take-over of property owned by late media tycoon Badri (Arkadi) Patarkatsishvili.
On 1 August 2008, Tskhinvali separatists begun shelling Georgian villages, with a sporadic response from Georgian peacekeepers in the area. The Georgian Army was sent to the conflict zone on 7 August and the Georgian troops took control of most of Tskhinvali. Russia accused Georgia of "aggression against Tskhinvali" and launched a large-scale land, air and sea invasion of Georgia on 8 August with the stated goal of a peace enforcement operation. Russian and the separatist Tskhinvali forces fought Georgian army for several days, until Georgian forces retreated. The Russian and the separatist Abkhaz forces opened a second front by attacking the Kodori Gorge held by Georgia. Russian naval forces blockaded part of the Georgian coast. Russian forces temporarily occupied the Georgian cities of Zugdidi, Senaki, Poti and Gori, holding on to these areas beyond the ceasefire. Russia recognised the independence of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali from Georgia on 26 August.
