Saakashvili: Russia wants to crush Georgia`s statehood
August 3rd, 2009 16:21
Nobody in the world wants new war, Georgian president told Reuters news agency. A year later after the Russian intervention, Mikheil Saakashvili said in his interview that Tbilisi does not intend to restore Georgia`s territorial integrity by military way.
`I am still sitting in this office despite solemn pledges by (Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin to hang me by different parts of my body, to crush Georgia`s statehood, you know and basically it was the miraculous story of survival.
`And this a man who has extremely strong reputation of living up to this kind of promises and keeping this kind of pledges. So of course we have no illusion that he would not keep trying. He will keep trying until he has say in Russian politics.
`The issue is whether anybody in the world wants new war in Europe with the participation of Russia, and obvious answer is `No`, and that`s exactly what Vice President Biden was implying, and more than that we fully share that view.
`It has proven that modern statehood with real developed institutions can exist in this part of (the world), basically in this `terra incognito` for the rest of the world. We have proven that democracy is not an empty word, that it can function and we are building here something hopefully a very big success case in terms of economy and livelihood of the peoples.
`The Soviet Union is being destroyed right now in Georgia and I think we are dealing with last traces of it even if we have what are the heirs to Soviet troops in our territory, but over all this society.. totally has got rid itself of the Soviet legacy and that`s extremely important,` Mikheil Saakashvili Saakashvili said.