Vladimir Putin announced his intention to take over Ukraine almost two decades ago, but warnings about his aggressive territorial ambitions were ignored by the West, former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili wrote in a letter to The Times, which, according to the agency, was secretly sent from the hospital where Saakashvili is staying.
Saakashvili writes in the letter that Putin did not hide his plans to seize the territory when they met in the Kremlin in 2004.
“Everything he is doing now, he told me more or less clearly at our first meeting,” Saakashvili wrote.
He said he traveled to Berlin to express his concerns about Vladimir Putin after a meeting in the Kremlin in 2004, but German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder showed indifference.
“It was not surprising that he immediately reprimanded me with Putin,” Saakashvili wrote.
He said he continued to issue warnings about Putin after the 2008 War, but was routinely ignored.
“When I warned the West about Putin, I was ignored like an unstable, embittered madman,” he wrote.
