World | investment banks Banker Predicted Georgian Invasion 2 Days Early By Nick McMaster Posted Aug 14, 2008 6:19 PM CDT Copied France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, answers journalists as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, center, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, look on, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008. (AP Photo) An investment banker in Kiev predicted the Georgian conflict two days before it occurred, Reuters reports. "So whaddaya think?,” Geoff Smith wrote on Aug. 5 to a fellow strategist at Renaissance Capital. “I say Saakashvili is going to 'restore the territorial integrity of Georgia' five minutes before the opening ceremony starts in Beijing and dare the Russians to invade while the Games are on." On Aug. 7, the day before the Olympics began, Saakashvili did just that. "It was just intuition," Smith told Reuters. "Certainly the next White House will not be as supportive of Saakashvili as this one, and so if Saakashvili wanted to reunite Georgia he really had to do it this year and he was probably hoping the Olympic Games gave him the right cover." Read These Next 11 people hurt in a "brutal act of violence" in Michigan. White House makes Hegseth put his polygraph away. A new book argues the Sacagawea legend is all wrong. A parent's nightmare, in a white cardboard box. Report an error