Just as one cannot say that Georgia killed Sandro Girgvliani or that Georgia killed Buta Robakidze, one cannot say that Georgia started the war in 2008 - the war was not started by Georgia, but by Saakashvili's treacherous, externally imposed regime, - Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists while visiting the Shindisi Heroes Memorial.

According to Kobakhidze, “no betrayal by Saakashvili and the National Movement can justify the occupation carried out by the Russian Federation.”

“The 2008 war was started by the Saakashvili regime, unequivocally. Saakashvili remained in the position of president through the fraudulent means, and this traitor, a foreign agent, carried out the assignment in 2008 and started the war. Just as it cannot be said that Georgia killed Sandro Girgvliani or that Georgia killed Buta Robakidze, it is also impossible to say that Georgia started the war in 2008. The war in 2008 was started not by Georgia, but by Saakashvili’s treacherous, externally imposed regime. In fact, in 2003, they came to power from the outside. They deceived people. They were foreign agents from the very beginning and they committed treason in 2008. They fulfilled the main treasonous task when they started the war,” Kobakhidze said.

As Kobakhidze noted, until 2018, representatives of the National Movement did not dare to talk about the fact that they did not start the war.

"First of all, you should not speak for others. As for the outbreak of the war. Who started the war is recorded in the relevant documents, which your party has also confirmed with its signature. This is the Council of Europe resolution, this is Tagliavini's conclusion, and this is the decree of your president, Mikheil Saakashvili himself. All three documents state that in fact, the Saakashvili regime started the war. Until 2018, representatives of this regime and this party did not dare to talk about the fact that they did not start the war. In 2018, something like this happened - Salome Zurabishvili made a statement that the then government started the war. This gave this party, the National Movement, a kind of excuse to claim the opposite. It was a difficult period then, due to the fact that the situation within the team, within the Georgian Dream, was not easy, and we found it difficult to defend Salome Zurabishvili when she made this statement.

We explained to Salome Zurabishvili then that telling the truth at that moment was not appropriate, due to the fact that we would have to take a defensive position. We had agents in the team, and in such conditions it would not have been right to tell the truth. Exactly what we told her happened,” Kobakhidze said.