Saakashvili 'no longer exists' as Georgia's president: Medvedev

Sebastian Smith
AFP
Tuesday, Sept 3, 2008

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow no longer considered Mikheil Saakashvili as Georgia's leader, calling him a "political corpse" and accusing his regime of "aggression that ended in many deaths."

In Tbilisi, Georgia's top security official accused Medvedev of having "lost control" after the Kremlin leader's remarks.

Speaking in an interview ahead of US Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Georgia, Medvedev again accused Washington of helping Tbilisi "build its war machine" and urged the United States to review its relations with the country.

"For us, the present Georgian regime has collapsed. President Saakashvili no longer exists in our eyes. He is a political corpse," Medvedev said in the interview broadcast on Russian television.

Medvedev said Moscow was ready to hold talks with the international community "on all sorts of questions, including post-conflict resolution in the region" of the Caucasus.

"But we would like the international community to remember who began the aggression and who is responsible for people's deaths," he said.

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