Tsulukiani accuses ex-Pres Saakashvili of paving way for Russia’s 2008 occupation of Kodori Gorge

Parliament’s temporary investigative commission has accused former president Mikheil Saakashvili and his United National Movement (UNM) party of creating the conditions that “enabled” Russia’s occupation of the Kodori Gorge in 2008.

Presenting the commission’s findings on Tuesday, chair Thea Tsulukiani said testimony from former Kodori residents and defenders suggested that measures introduced by the UNM as early as 2006 were “aimed at depopulating the gorge and handing it over to Russia.”

Tsulukiani further noted Saakashvili’s government had “gifted Russia two key preconditions” that later facilitated the 2008 occupation - the disarmament of the local population, who had resisted attacks and maintained Georgian control, and the deployment of heavily armed units in violation of the 1994 ceasefire agreement.

“By these actions, the United National Movement and Mikheil Saakashvili provided Russia with the legal grounds it later exploited, to Georgia’s detriment, to justify violations of our territorial integrity in 2008,” Tsulukiani told MPs.

The commission’s report also cited the views of former officials, including Irakli Batiashvili, who argued that the 2006 decisions created the legal and military conditions Russia later used at the United Nations Security Council.