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Saakasvili in a Post-war Nervous Breakdown
Dmitry Medvedev said he had believed to the last minute that the conflict between South Ossetia and Georgia could have been avoided, and spoke of the meetings he had with the Georgian president Mikhail Saakasvili in Sankt Petersburg and Astana about the peaceful solutions to solve the situation.
He added that since Georgia was the one to initiate the conflict, the reaction of Russia was fairly motivated, and was designed to stop the invasion Saakasvili had ordered, not to depose him or to capture the capital of the state.
He ascribed the entire fault of the events that took place three years ago on the Georgian president and expressed regret that the two countries were unable to mend their relations in a peaceful way.
“Saakasvili committed a crime against the Russian Federation and its national,” Medvedev said, adding that hundreds of people were killed on his orders, including Russian peacekeepers.
Georgian Troops
The Russian president also commented on US Senate’s statement that the action Russia took in Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia was nothing but occupation, and said that these words were “unfounded.”
Speaking of the current status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Dmitry Medvedev said that the two countries were in close ties with the Russian Federation but that their admittance to the Federation was out of the question for the time being.
He added on the subject that his decrees always militated for the recognition of the two breakaway states as subjects to international law, not as parts of Russia.
Speaking of the fact that Georgia is the only country that blocks Russia’s admission to the World Trade Organization, Medvedev said that he had hopes that before the end of the year Russia would be a member of the trade organization.
The war in South Ossetia and Abkhazia started on August 8, 2008, as the Georgian government launched a large-scale attack against the breakaway provinces in an attempt to win back the territory that had been lost during wars in the 1990s, when parts of Georgia practically went under the control of Russian-backed governments.
Georgian president Mikhail Saakasvili said that his order to retake the territory came as a response to a Russian attack on Georgian peacekeepers, and as a result of the fact that Russia was moving non-peacekeeping troops inside the two provinces.
Russian Troops Entering Georgia
Within hours, Georgia succeeded in capturing most of the Ossetian capital city Tskhinvali. Russia sent its 58th Army to South Ossetia, striking by air the Georgian forces in this province, and launching an attack on the territory of Georgia, justified as a peacekeeping mission and a humanitarian act.
Russian and Ossetian troops fought against Goergian army for four days, and on August 9, the Russian navy sent troops also to the Abkhaz coasts. Georgian army was really no match for the Russian one, and the defeat was swift, as it was the defeat of the ground troops of Georgia.
At the end of five days of battle the Russians were in control of the situation and had already occupied the cities of Poti, Gori, Senaki and Zugdidi in Georgia.
A ceasefire was brokered by France and signed on August 15 by Georgia, and the next day by Moscow. Russia retreated from the Georgian territory but created buffer zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
During the war, even the capital of the state, Tbilisi came under attack by the Russian aviation.
The withdrawal of Russian troops was made at a slow pace and lasted about two months, though the international community had demanded them out much sooner. The last soldiers to leave the territory of Georgia were the troops in Perevi, which pulled back on October 18, 2010.
Russian historians claim that Ossetia joined Russian Empire in 1750 as an independent province, and was united with Georgia forty years later under the rule of the Tiflis governorship. Ossetians were never too happy about this idea and in 1990 declared their autonomy within the state of Georgia, which annulled their pledge for autonomy a year later. Georgians consider that the two provinces were created by the Communist regime.
The first Ossetian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia is said by the same Russian historians to have had a very nationalistic stance on Ossetians and to have desired to have them all expelled from the Georgia he wanted to give back to the Georgians.
The same policy was followed by the next president of Georgia, Eduard Sheverdnadze, continued by the incumbent Saakasvili and likely to be inherited even by Nino Burjanadze, the former speaker of the parliament, who considers that Georgia without South Ossetia and Abkhazia is like a body without legs and hands.
There are two theories as to why Saakasvili ventured to attack Russian troops in South Ossetia. The first one is that Russia had looked for a way to provoke Georgia and punished it for its desire to join the NATO bloc.
In April 2008, a NATO summit was hosted by Bucharest, the capital of Romania, in East Europe, and Georgia and Ukraine submitted their applications for such a candidacy along with the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia.
Macedonia’s way was blocked by Greece, which does not like the fact that the country has the same name as its northern province, while Ukraine and Georgia were blocked by Russia, who saw a threat in the expansion of NATO in what Moscow calls “complementarity zone.”
Soon after the summit Russia attacked Georgia and shattered its every chance of ever becoming a member of NATO, given the serious business of the Russian presence in the breakaway territories, while Ukraine fell into line after the elections that were one by a Russian politician.
The second theory is that Georgia was trying to show the Western world that it is a helpless country who needs assistance. Furthermore, Saakasvili wanted a swift resolution of the situation in the two provinces before his popularity decreased in the eyes of his American supporters.
No matter which one of these theories is right, or that they may both be right, the fact is that Saakasvili misinterpreted the signs he had from the Westerns democracies, signs of friendship and appreciation he took to mean a green light to attack South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
US State Department admits that at the beginning of August Saakasvili’s contacts in Washington were constantly asking the question how would the U.S. feel about a Georgian attack on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and that they were receiving answers that could not have been construed as a red flag.
Map of Georgia
Anyway, Saakasvili’s war was a tragedy for his people and an embarrassment for those who support him abroad.
No one actually wanted to interfere in a war against Russia to help a little nation in the Caucasus mountains, let alone to condemn it too harshly in the aftermath. For the parties involved or by-standing in the conflict it was best forgotten as soon as it was possible.
Russia revisits this victory every year, which means that its gain from it is far more important than the mere headaches and panic attacks it caused Saakasvili. South Ossetia and Abkhazia are bargaining chips in the international negotiations.
When the United States recognized the Republic of Kosovo, Russia immediately replied that it was using a double standard and that Kosovo’s recognition should be followed by a similar recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which would thus finally pave their way toward having their application to become Russian federal states approved.
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