On the 18th anniversary of the August 2008 war, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili reiterated the ruling party’s controversial accusations against former President Mikheil Saakashvili, arguing that the previous Georgian government bore some responsibility for Russia’s later full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Papuashvili said the 2008 war could have been avoided if Georgian Dream had been in power at the time and argued that preventing the conflict in Georgia would have also prevented Russia’s subsequent expansion, News Georgia reports.

“This war showed us two different worlds. The first was the heroism and self-sacrifice of Georgian soldiers and civilians, while the second showed us the treacherous nature of the puppet regime - a regime that dragged Georgia into this war at the time and then abandoned wounded soldiers on the battlefield, abandoned dead soldiers on the battlefield and abandoned civilians on the battlefield, while itself, as we saw, was engaged in clowning and gloating during those days,” Papuashvili told journalists after a wreath-laying ceremony at the Mukhatgverdi Brothers’ Cemetery.

“This war would not have happened if Saakashvili’s puppet regime had not been in power in Georgia at the time and if a patriotic force such as Georgian Dream had been in power. There would have been no war, no destruction and no casualties. And if there had been no 2008 war, there would most likely have been no war in Ukraine either,” he said.