The “moment of truth” has come for Europe to use “all its diplomatic arsenal to deter the aggressive instincts of some politicians in Moscow,” President Saakashvili said in an interview with Reuters on May 1.

He said that Russia’s recent moves in respect of Georgia’s breakaway regions was “not just an attack on a piece of Georgian territory,” but also “an attack on what some politicians in Moscow regard as the dangerous virus of democracy and freedom spreading in Russia's neighbourhood.”

“They clearly have said – and this was reiterated by Putin to me – this is a response to the Kosovo precedent, this is a response to Western neglect of Russian positions and this is a response to the perceived threat of NATO enlargement in this region,” Saakashvili said.