"I am not going to bare the feudals' sulking about the Georgian president who wants to impose his sway over Adjaria (an autonomy of Georgia)," noted Saakashvili.
"Adjaria is a territory of Georgia which cannot be left without seacoast and port. I am not going to give this territory away as a gift. If we had failed to take action in time, Shevardnadze would have already given this territory away. We should return now everything that belongs to us," said the president.
Saakashvili made a point of this being also true of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia is a self-proclaimed republic in the territory of Georgia).
The Georgian President referred to his trip during an election campaign to Tskhinvali where he, accompanied by reporters and no bodyguards, met with the local population. "A guy looking a thug came up to me and demanded that I leave the territory of South Ossetia," said Saakashvili.. "When asked who he was, he said he represented the government of independent South Ossetia. I told him that he could but for a very short while."