Former Georgian Ambassador to France: Strategy that Russia is Aggressor, Can be Invalidated

"The debate on this issue within the country was difficult to listen to, but now Russia is defending “our positions” at the UN to nullify the international community's accusations of aggression against us," the diplomat wrote on social media.

As Gotcha Javakhishvili says, on the fourth anniversary of the August War, Vladimir Putin confirmed at a press conference that the invasion of Georgia was planned years in advance by the Russian military headquarters, which is "his answer to who started the war on August 7, 2008."

"And didn't Russia wage war against us before that?" It pains me deeply that our entirely just strategy - confirmed by the Strasbourg and Hague courts and known to us as well - that Russia was and is an aggressor, can be invalidated by statements made with the zeal for an “ephemeral political effect”, causing enormous damage to our foreign policy strategy.

I certainly do not envy my colleagues who have the impossible mission of refining these statements.

What do we learn, what benefits do we gain, at what cost, whose burden are we shouldering, and for what purpose? What do we do next? Who do we continue to be friends with?" wrote Gocha Javakhishvili, who left his position as Georgia's Ambassador to France due to the Russian law on so-called foreign agents.

On August 14, at a United Nations briefing, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, read a part of the Georgian Dream statement where former President Mikheil Saakashvili is accused of starting the August war. According to Polyansky, given this position of the Georgian government, the desire of its Western colleagues on the UN Security Council to discuss the issue of the 2008 war annually is akin to "masochistic practices."