Georgian authorities use in presidential campaign videos with Saakashvili made during Five-Day War

A video from the period of the ruling of Mikhail Saakashvili, the third President of Georgia, with his confession to unleashing the Five-Day War, has been made public on the eve of the second round of the presidential election in the country.

On November 9, the video record was broadcasted on the air of the Georgian "Imedi" TV Company, which announced the emergency mode of operation with the aim of preventing the election victory of Grigol Vashadze. The video recorded a meeting of Mikhail Saakashvili with then Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze and Alexander Lomaya, Secretary of the National Security Council, during which the state leader announced that Georgia had started military actions in the Tskhinvali District, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

"In response to the question whether we carried out military actions to take control over Tskhinvali and those places of South Ossetia that we did not control, I has earlier openly declared, and now I declare: we have made a decision to carry out military actions in the Tskhinvali District. We have made such a decision," Mikhail Saakashvili said in Georgian.

Grigol Vashadze acknowledged the video is authentic and explained that "Mikhail Saakashvili had started actions in response to Russian aggression," which became of ongoing nature in August 2008.

The video will not have a serious impact on the will of voters with their attraction to the side of Salome Zuraishvili, believe political analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 10, 2018 at 06:36 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.