Last month marked 16 years since the five-day war in August 2008, a significant ordeal for Georgia and a herald of a new phase in Russia's aggressive global policies. Unfortunately, in the years that have passed, Russian aggression has not subsided. This is evident not only in the continued occupation of Georgian territories but also in the ongoing battle over historical narratives.
Russia's aggression against Georgia did not begin in August 2008. Moscow started a so-called "hybrid war" against Georgia back when the Soviet Union was beginning to collapse. This mainly involved sparking so-called "ethnic conflicts." Gorbachev's policies were taken over by Yeltsin's Russia in this regard. Moscow pretended to be on the sidelines, claiming to play the role of a "peacemaker."
Presenting itself as a "peacemaker" seems to be a role that any form of Russia enjoys. If we look at history, on February 11, 1921, the Russian Red Army attacked the Democratic Republic of Georgia from the direction of Soviet Armenia. They portrayed this as a local uprising, and the Soviet Russian ambassador at the time, a man named Shainman, appeared before the Georgian government, requesting to be sent to the "conflict zone" to investigate the situation and help establish peace. The Georgian army repelled the initial attacks on Tbilisi, and among the captured Red Army soldiers, orders were found that had been issued from Moscow to take Tbilisi.
Seven decades later, Shevardnadze's Georgia accepted Russia's "rules of the game," probably hoping that a policy of concessions to Russia could restore Georgia's territorial integrity. However, it became clear that neo-imperial Russia could not accept the independence of the former Soviet republics.
For a long time, Moscow acted under the guise of a "peacemaker," using this cover to mask its occupation of 20% of Georgia's territory, as if Georgia was only fighting separatists. In 2008, Putin escalated to a new level of aggression by openly attacking Georgia. Putin's major offensive against Georgia, which began in 2008, was halted with Western support, allowing Georgia to maintain its independence.
Russia violated the August 11, 2008 agreement, which required it to withdraw its troops from Georgian territory. By recognizing the "independence" of the separatist regimes in Sukhumi and Tskhinvali, Russia officially left its occupying forces in place. It can now be said that the Western reaction to Russia's aggression against Georgia was "tolerable" for Moscow and encouraged further aggression. This led to the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the creation of separatist regions in Ukraine, and then February 2022, when Putin launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine, aiming to destroy the Ukrainian state. Ukraine's resistance was clearly unexpected for Russia, but it did not stop the aggression.
In 2008, Moscow was unable to overthrow the pro-Western government in Georgia through war, but it succeeded in doing so through elections in 2012. The West supported the rise to power of the "Georgian Dream" at that time. "Dream" and its leader Bidzina Ivanishvili promised to build "unprecedented democracy" in Georgia, and the path of Euro-Atlantic integration was enshrined in the constitution. At the same time, "Dream" actively moved closer to Moscow, justifying this by the need to "normalize relations."
However, Russia's attack on Ukraine has made everything clear. The results of the current Georgian government's policies are undeniable: growing Western criticism, discussions about the so-called "global war party," and the adoption of the "Russian law." Today, relations with the West are completely deteriorated, and negotiations with the European Union are frozen.
This distancing from the West became even more evident on the anniversary of the August War. On April 29, 2024, in a speech, Bidzina Ivanishvili, leader of the "Georgian Dream," stated that in 2008, the West dragged Georgia into war with Russia, and that the West did the same with Ukraine, involving it in a war with Russia. This has been a claim of Russian propaganda for years.
On August 7, 2024, while representatives of Georgia's allied nations were making statements one after the other, demanding Russia respect Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty, the ruling "Georgian Dream" party issued a statement blaming the war on the "National Movement" and Saakashvili. They also announced that after the October 26 parliamentary elections, they will re-investigate the August War and punish those responsible.
On August 7, Georgia's current president, Salome Zurabishvili, distanced herself from the "Georgian Dream" and visited the occupation line in Ergneti, where she paid a visit to the museum of the August 2008 war.
A real battle over the date the war began is ongoing. It is now well-known that the Russian army invaded Georgia at dawn on August 7, 2008, and that Georgia's government ordered a military operation on the night of August 7 at 11:35 PM. Russian propaganda, however, claims that they entered Georgia on August 8, allegedly to help the Tskhinvali regime. Today's Georgian government supports the Russian version of the war and, as mentioned, intends to confirm this through "investigation" after the elections and pledges to apologize to Ossetian people.
The main message of the "Georgian Dream" in the October 26 elections is the so-called fight against the "collective National Movement." As it turns out, the issue of the August War is part of the government's election campaign.
