( Civil ) - President Saakashvili said on August 10 he does not want confrontation with Russia and is ready for a meeting with Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Speaking at a meeting with Georgian students, who have obtained the state scholarships to study abroad, Saakashvili reiterated that maintaining unity and remaining calm would be Georgia's only response to the August 6 missile incident.
He lashed out at those opposition politicians who have criticized the authorities for "a failure to defend the country from air attacks."
"The Georgian society can be divided into two parts: the one, which constitutes 99% and which is clear-minded... and another one, those stupid who have been shouting: why have not we downed [an aircraft]," Saakashvili said.
"I want to make it clear," he added, "we are not in a state of war with Russia."
He said Georgia is modernizing its armed forces "to western standards" and "now we are planning to procure fighter aircrafts to patrol our airspace."
Georgia currently, mainly possesses SU-25 Frogfoot aircrafts, which are designed to attack ground targets.
Saakashvili also said that several months ago Georgia has put into operation air defense system, which although is a Soviet-made but an upgraded model. He did not give any further details.
Russian and Ukrainian media sources reported recently that Georgia had purchased an Osa self-propelled anti-aircraft system with missiles from Ukraine last year.
He said six months ago Georgia even had no radars, "but at this time we have very precisely accounted all the information [about violation of Georgia's airspace on August 6] and handed it over to the international community."
But despite this military procurements, he said, "we will spare no efforts to avoid our involvement in a large scale military conflict."
He said Georgia's major goal was to continue working with western partners and to integrate to NATO.
Saakashvili said although Tbilisi wanted to cooperate over security issues with Russia, "we will not tolerate someone gaining security at the expense of our destabilization."
"I am not intending a confrontation with Russia. We want to hold a substantive meeting with President Putin," Saakashvili said.
Both the Georgian and Russian officials have confirmed in late July that consultation were underway to arrange the meeting of the two presidents sometime in August. The August 6 missile incident, however, questioned the possibility of this meeting.
Although he expressed desire to meet with Putin, Saakashvili in his speech has also unleashed criticism of the Russian military establishment.
He said he had seen "one Russian general in panic and red like a crab, speaking something utter foolish things." Saakashvili was apparently referring to comments by Russia's military chief of staff, General Yuri Baluyevsky, who said the August 6 missile incident was Georgia's a provocation against Russia.
"Remarks of this kind are sign of weakness," Saakashvili said, " Georgia is no longer a country to be easily swallowed."
Saakashvili stressed that situation has changed and the international community now stands beside Georgia.
"No one in the world has noticed in 1992 when Sokhumi was bombed... Pankisi gorge was bombed in 2001 and in 2002 - it also remained without any attention. Upper Abkhazia [upper Kodori Gorge] was also bombed [on March 11, 2007] and despite a huge resistance from the UN, we have anyway confirmed the fact of bombardment thanks to our firm position," he said.
Saakashvili said the August 6 incident has attracted even more international attention.
"A large group of independent experts from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Sweden and the United States are on their way to Georgia," he added.
Georgia has announced that it wanted to set up "a group of international independent experts" which would probe into the August 6 incident.