Kobakhidze explained plans to liquidate the South Ossetian administration.

The Tskhinvali Regional Administration was created in Georgia in violation of the Constitution and will be abolished. However, municipal administrations will continue to operate.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze called the creation of the South Ossetian administration in 2007 a "deliberate betrayal" and a violation of the Georgian Constitution. According to him, this was the basis for the Georgian Dream government's decision to liquidate the structure, reports Novosti Georgia.

Kobakhidze asserts that the decision of third President Mikheil Saakashvili effectively facilitated the restoration of the borders of the South Ossetian Autonomous Region, abolished in 1990, and played a "significant role" in the subsequent occupation of the Tskhinvali region by Russia.

"In fact, the separatist government was then granted indirect legitimacy, and this facilitated the processes that ultimately led to the occupation of our historical part. This was a betrayal. This betrayal, of course, must be reversed." "It is unacceptable for any betrayal to remain in our legislation... We must bring our legislation into line with the requirements of the Constitution," Kobakhidze said.

The Prime Minister also criticized the use of the term "South Ossetia," emphasizing that it is absent from the Georgian legal and political landscape. However, Kobakhidze did not explain why his government is seeking the complete liquidation of the administration rather than changing its format or name.

The administration, based in Tbilisi, was created to govern the territory of the former autonomous region, despite the lack of Georgian government control over the region. Led by Vladimir Sanakoyev and later Tamaz Bestayev, the structure dealt primarily with humanitarian issues and assistance to South Ossetian refugees.

Parliament is currently considering a bill to liquidate the administration from January 2026.

Mikheil Saakashvili, who is in prison, called the initiative "a dangerous step toward recognizing the independence of occupied Tskhinvali." He said the administration was created in 2007 as an alternative to the "Russian administration" – the de facto authorities of the breakaway region.

The interim administration was created in 2006 "based on unconstitutional elections held in the Tskhinvali region, which resulted in the proclamation of the so-called president of South Ossetia and the formation of the so-called alternative government of South Ossetia," said Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili. "With this step, the then government indirectly legitimized the separatist processes, which was a clear and flagrant betrayal of the interests of the Georgian state," Papuashvili emphasized.

At the same time, the municipal authorities of Akhalgori, Kurta, Tigvi, and Eredvi elected in 2006 will continue to function. Official Tbilisi considers them "the only legitimately elected and functioning authorities in the Tskhinvali region," Georgia Online reports.

"Caucasian Knot" wrote that on the 17th anniversary of the start of the five-day war, August 8, 2025, Kobakhidze stated that the 2008 war began not as Georgia's defensive operation against Russia, but as an escalation of the conflict following "an unprovoked offensive on Tskhinvali" by "the then regime," citing President Mikheil Saakashvili's decree declaring martial law.

In 2018, the same Irakli Kobakhidze, as speaker of the Georgian parliament, stated that "the Russian Federation was the initiator of the war, the aggressor," Tbilisi_life notes. Netgazeti has produced a video featuring these two statements by Kobakhidze: in the old one, he blames Russia for starting the war, while in the new one, he declares that "the Saakashvili regime started the war."