TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia’s most powerful man, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has hinted that the South Caucasus country may apologize to the Ossetians for the 2008 war with Russia that led to Moscow recognizing two breakaway Georgian regions, Georgian media reported.

Russia recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent states after Russian troops repelled a Georgian attempt to retake South Ossetia in a five-day war in 2008. Most of the rest of the world continues to recognize the territories as Georgian.

Billionaire former Prime Minister Ivanishvili, who is running as the leading candidate of the ruling Georgian Dream party in the October 26 elections, told Georgian public broadcaster 1TV that the “criminal regime” of former President Mikheil Saakashvili had started the war at the behest of foreign powers.

“Immediately after the elections on October 26, those who instigated the war will be brought to justice,” Ivanishvili said, adding that Georgians would then “apologize” for the war. He was speaking at a campaign rally in the city of Gori, which was briefly occupied by Russia during the 2008 war.

Saakashvili is serving a six-year prison sentence for abuse of power and could not be reached for immediate comment.

His United National Movement (UNM) party called Ivanishvili’s comments a national disgrace that served Russia’s interests and called the statement treasonous, Interpress News reported.

Georgia, a small mountainous country that gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, is being wooed by the West, Russia and China, and many Georgians believe the country is at a turning point as it heads to elections next month.

South Ossetia, about 100 kilometers north of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, seceded from Georgia in 1991-92 in a war that cost several thousand lives. The area’s ethnic Georgian population was largely expelled from the province.

The majority of people living in South Ossetia today are ethnically different from Georgians. They say they were forcibly integrated into Georgia under Soviet rule.

A report published in 2009 and commissioned by the EU said that Georgia started the war when it attacked the South Ossetian city of Tskhinvali with heavy artillery on the night of 7-8 August 2008. Russia responded with overwhelming force, which the report said went beyond any reasonable measure.

(Written by Guy Faulconbridge; edited by Alex Richardson)