Jailed ex-president says he warned West about Putin

13:05, 18.07.2023

“When I warned the West about Putin, I was ignored as an unstable, embittered madman,” said Georgia’s jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili in a letter sent to The Times.

According to Saakashvili, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his intention to take over Ukraine almost two decades ago, but warnings about his aggressive territorial ambitions were ignored by the West.

Saakashvili wrote in the letter that Putin did not hide his plans to seize the territory when they met in the Kremlin in 2004. “Everything he is doing now, he told me more or less clearly at our first meeting,” Saakashvili said.

The ex-president went on to say that he travelled to Berlin to express his concerns about Vladimir Putin after a meeting in the Kremlin in 2004, but German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder showed indifference.

“It was not surprising that he immediately reprimanded me with Putin,” Saakashvili wrote.

He said he continued to issue warnings about Putin after the 2008 war but was routinely ignored.

“When I warned the West about Putin, I was ignored as an unstable, embittered madman,” he wrote.

By - Elene Dobordjginidze

Politics

Mikheil Saakashvili