Former Georgian President Saakashvili describes how he tried to warn the West about Russia

Ukraine, Europe’s second-largest country with a population of 44 million, is battling Russia in what intelligence communities have said would be the biggest war in Europe since 1945. One man who fought the Russian army in his homeland says the world now believes in what he had been warning against 14 years ago.  

“At least, I warned all my Western friends about Russia becoming more dangerous and drawing more red lines,” says Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s former president, who is behind bars in his country for charges he considers trumped-up. 

Saakashvili, who calls himself Putin’s private prisoner, answered Fox News questions in writing through his lawyer.  

The then-41-year-old President was serving his second term in office when in August 2008, Russian troops rolled onto Georgian soil and occupied the Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions – amounting to one-fifth of Georgian territories. Russia soon recognized their independence – a playbook Putin repeated in Ukraine this week. 

“I remember I told Ambassador Burns [Nicholas Burns, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia] and Dick Holbrooke that one day Russia will even resort to tactical nuclear weapons, and they looked at me like I was nuts, now lots of people believe the same,” he recalls.

In April 2008, NATO leaders gathered in Bucharest, Romania to vote on Membership Action Plan (MAP) for two aspirant countries – Georgia and Ukraine. Despite strong U.S. support, alliance leaders did not agree and applications were denied. However, the heads of states agreed that “these countries will become members of NATO.” The promise irritated the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin has since repeated that NATO’s expansion to its Eastern flank poses security threats to the Russian Federation. 

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