Georgian Leader Defiant in Face of Russia Conflict

MARGARET WARNER:

Secretary of State Rice was in Georgia today with two missions: to throw U.S. support behind the small nation and to get its president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to sign a cease-fire agreement. They spoke to reporters at a news conference.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. Secretary of State: Georgia has been attacked. Russian forces need to leave Georgia at once. The world needs to help Georgia maintain its sovereignty, its territorial integrity, and its independence.

MARGARET WARNER:

Saakashvili said, in signing the agreement, he wasn't making any concession about the future status of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI, President of Georgia: Never, ever we will surrender. Never, ever will we give our freedom and independence. Never, ever will we give any piece of our territory.

And freedom will go to every part of Georgia, to every ethnic group, to every community in Georgia, and we will definitely get rid of these invaders for good.

Unfortunately, today we are looking evil directly in the eye. And today, this evil is very strong, very nasty, and very dangerous, for everybody, not only for us.

MARGARET WARNER:

Rice said the cease-fire would require Russian and Georgian troops to return to the positions they held before the conflict broke out and that the status of the disputed regions would be settled later.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE:

I want to emphasize what the president said. This is a cease-fire agreement. This is not about the future of these conflict regions. This is a cease-fire agreement.

MARGARET WARNER:

Saakashvili hotly rebutted suggestions that he had precipitated the crisis by sending troops into South Ossetia last Thursday.

MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI:

So who invited the trouble here? Who invited this arrogance here? Who invited these innocent deaths here? Who is — not only those people who perpetrate them are responsible, but also those people who failed to stop that.

And who is trying now to look for every excuse saying, "Oh, you know, Georgians might have started it." Excuse me, 1,200 tanks came into Georgia within a few hours. There is no way you can mobilize those tanks in such a fast period unless you are ready.

MARGARET WARNER:

The American-educated Saakashvili has put Georgia on a pro-Western path after leading the bloodless Rose Revolution in November 2003. He won the presidency two months later with 96 percent of the vote and was re-elected this January in a much more hotly contested election.

He's pushed to join NATO and the European Union. And today he repeated his distrust and loathing of Russia.

JOURNALIST:

President Saakashvili, are you satisfied that this agreement fully protects Georgian interests?

MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI:

I think I'm not satisfied with one fact, that all of this could have been prevented. We were screaming, shouting to the world that Russia was going to do this. I told to a number of European leaders Russia was going to do this.

And they usually told me that I was overplaying the threat, overestimating it, that Russians were not capable of doing such things. These are 21st-century barbarians.

Now you are dealing with extremely arrogant and a euphoric force that thinks that they are back — they are back again and they're — they can do things.

And you know what? This is not a done deal yet. We need to do our utmost to deter such behavior in the future, to, first of all, stop what's happening, to deter it in the future, because we know exactly the truth.

And we know that we are dealing with people who tried their best to mislead the world, to cheat, to lie, to deceive, and to repeat this over and over again, maybe also in other places.

MARGARET WARNER:

The press conference came hours after Russian President Medvedev said South Ossetia and Abkhazia are unlikely to live together with Georgia after this.