Defence Minister: Georgia winning diplomatic war with Russia

Russian occupation service members on Georgian territory will restore the Caucasian state’s borders to their 1992 positions "themselves” after Georgia is accepted into the European Union, Defence Minister Tinatin Khidasheli told the Ukrainian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

In an exclusive interview with the outlet Khidasheli said Russia was "losing all of its bridgeheads” in the diplomatic war with her country.

"No one in the world today thinks of Russia as a partner,” the Defence Minister told RFE/RL.

She also criticized Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili - now Governor of Ukraine’s third largest city of Odessa – for "stealing elections” and introducing "torture and rape as a matter of everyday life in prisons” in Georgia.

"Just because someone speaks loud against Putin does not make him a democrat and brilliant”, Khidasheli said while questioning the Ukrainian government’s view of Saakashvili.

Khidasheli still expressed hopes in the interview for former president’s tenure in Odessa to turn out "less disastrous” compared to his combined eight-year term in Georgia.

Read the full article on the interview here: www.rferl.org