Badri Bitsadze, former head of the Border Police, who is the husband of former Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze, said the Georgian leadership decided to launch the war in South Ossetia, “because Saakashvili was sure he would have won it.”

“There was no green light from any foreign country. Everything happened very simply. One day these people [the Georgian leadership] decided that it should happen,” Bitsadze said in an interview published by the Georgian daily, Rezonansi, on November 29. 

“I, together with 250 border guards, was on the way leading to Tskhinvali. Two buses full of flags were moving towards Tskhinvali… They were sure that a rally would have been held in Tskhinvali next day and we would have celebrated the restoration of Georgian jurisdiction in the Tskhinvali region,” he said.

Bitsadze, who resigned from the post of chief of Border Police on October 29, has also claimed that the decision to launch the war was taken by President Saakashvili and his inner circle consisting of small group of influential figures, including Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili; Justice Minister Zurab Adeishvili, Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria; Secretary of the National Security Council Alexandre Lomaia and Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava.

“Saakashvili was sure he would have won it [the war]. He was listening only to those people who agreed with him, no one else,” Bitsadze, who in the capacity of Border Polish chief was also a deputy interior minister, said. 

He also said that although he was not summoned by the parliamentary commission studying the August war, he would testify before the EU-funded commission, which plans a separate probe.

Bitsadze, who announced about his resignation two days after Nino Burjanadze stated about plans to set up “a clear-cut opposition party,” said that he planned “to be actively involved in the politics” within his wife’s newly set up party – Democratic Movement-United Georgia.