President Kavelasvili: A new war with Russia would be catastrophic for Georgia

A new war between Georgia and Russia, which the West is trying to provoke, would be catastrophic for Georgia, President Mikheil Kavelashvili said in an interview with the American magazine Responsible Statecraft, according to Caliber.Az.

“The West demanded that we get involved in war with Russia against our vital national interests…just like in 2008, when the then government’s unreasonable actions on the basis of trust in NATO led Georgia to disaster,” he added.

According to him, relations between Georgia and the European Union deteriorated after the start of the conflict in Ukraine and the Georgian authorities' unwillingness to provide military assistance and send volunteers there.

Kavelashvili, a former professional footballer (including a brief stint at Manchester City in 1996) and co-founder of the far-right People's Power party, assumed the presidency on December 29, 2024, following a controversial electoral college vote dominated by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party. His inauguration deepened a political crisis, with outgoing pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili refusing to step down, labelling it a "parody," and the opposition boycotting proceedings amid fraud allegations. The European Parliament's February 2025 resolution explicitly stated it does not recognise Kavelashvili as legitimate, citing democratic backsliding.

Kavelashvili's reference to 2008 underscores a pivotal trauma in modern Georgian history. The five-day war erupted on August 7, 2008, when then-President Mikheil Saakashvili, a pro-Western leader, ordered Georgian troops to retake South Ossetia, a breakaway region backed by Russia. Moscow responded with overwhelming force, routing Georgian military units and advancing to within 30 kilometres of Tbilisi. The conflict, which displaced over 192,000 people and inflicted $1.5 billion in damages on Georgia, ended with an EU-brokered ceasefire on August 12. 

By Khagan Isayev