The founder and honorary chairman of Georgia's ruling party, Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, said that it is necessary to find the strength to apologize for the fact that the Unity – National Movement party, which was in power in 2008, "enveloped Ossetian sisters and brothers in flames."

According to him, the August 2008 war "was not the will of either the Georgian or Ossetian people." He reiterated that Georgian Dream needs a constitutional majority in parliament for amendments related to the country's territorial integrity.

"European integration is our strategic choice, but we could not choose our neighbors, and therefore, in parallel with European integration, we had to take a principled but correct position towards Russia!" Ivanishvili noted.

"Bidzina Ivanishvili must apologize to all the military, to every citizen of Georgia," said Tamar Kordzaia, leader of the Unity - National Movement party. This is how the opposition politician responded to Bidzina Ivanishvili's promise to "find the strength to apologize" for what happened in 2008.

"I don't know how he will live after these words. There are angry people on social networks, they are very offended. We need to apologize to the military who heroically fought to protect Georgia from the Russians," said Kordzaia.

Meanwhile, a protest has begun in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi. The reason is Ivanishvili's aforementioned statement.

In August 2008, military actions were conducted between Georgia on one side and the Russian Federation and the self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia supported by it on the other side (the "Five-Day War", or the Russian-Georgian War). They ended after the signing of an EU-brokered ceasefire agreement.