Medvedev: Russia's top priority in S.Ossetia war

amoy

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Medvedev: Russia's top priority in S.Ossetia war was to defend our citizens, interests (RT EXCLUSIVE) — RT News

RT: Do you mean that this was, if you will, an opening gambit, a complex strategy?

DM: Yes, you're right. I think several factors came in to play. Firstly, Mr. Saakashvili was probably under the illusion that after the change of leadership in Russia, he might quietly pursue his agenda, which was previously beyond his reach and the reach of his predecessors.

Secondly, and I've said before, I think the support that Saakashvili received from the United States and some other countries played a certain role. And it wasn't just plain encouragement, but there was financial support as well. Let me remind you that by 2008, Georgia's defense budget had grown to almost a billion dollars, 50 times what it was in 2002. Clearly, Georgia was boosting its military might, and something like this always affects policy.

It seems that there was an understanding that since Georgia applied for NATO membership and the bid was not rejected outright, it was, so to speak, on some kind of waiting list, and that it was invulnerable. They almost felt like the NATO collective defense principle applied to them as well.

So, I think that all of these factors eventually led Saakashvili and some of his advisers to believe that they could achieve their goals by force.

RT: Many experts believe that Saakashvili may have considered two possible scenarios. The first one was based on Russia not getting involved in the conflict, for whatever reason. The second was that Russia would act rashly and go overboard – making it easy for Georgia to portray it as the aggressor and gain international support, in order to fix the obvious imbalance of power between the two countries. How feasible do you think this second plan was?

DM: You know, I don't hold Saakashvili's diplomatic and military talents in high regard. I don't think he was counting on the second scenario. It would have been too complex. I think he was hoping that Russia wouldn't get involved in the conflict, so Georgian troops would quickly enter Tskhinval, gain control over all of the main buildings, and restore what they thought was constitutional order, riding on the wave of support from the United States and some other countries. The second scenario was very risky, because "going overboard", like you said, would have had some serious consequences for him personally as well.
 

Austin

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Georgia war was scripted by White House and received political support from the higher level , there were number of hot heads in US and Condi was leading them all but US realised that they couldnt support Saakashvili and they might end up something into bigger US-Russia conflict so it backed out.

Even US Congress research and other independent media admitted that Georgia was the first to attack Ossetia and took a blood nose.

Europe at political level was more moderate and played a constructive role in the conflict , The Western media on the whole was one sided favoring Saakashvili

The most memorable moments of the war was Saakashvili biting his Tie :rofl:
 

W.G.Ewald

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W.G.Ewald

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Did Israel Help Spark the Russia-Georgia War in 2008? - John Hudson - The Atlantic Wire

Fresh documents released by WikiLeaks raise new questions about the five-day war between Russia and Georgia in 2008. In particular, the role of Israel and its involvement in providing military intelligence to Russia in the run-up to the war.

According to a leaked e-mail from an analyst at the intelligence firm Stratfor, Russia and Israel engaged in a deal in 2008 in which Jerusalem provided the Kremlin with secret codes for Georgian UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) in exchange for information on Iranian missile systems. In the e-mail, a Stratfor analyst says "Israel and Russia made a swap – Israel gave Russia the 'data link' code for those specific UAVs; in return, Russia gave Israel the codes for Iran's Tor-M1s." In 2008, that 'data link' code was allegedly used by the Russians to take down a Georgian drone flying in Georgian air space, a defining moment in the months before the war.
 

sesha_maruthi27

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The public supported the Russians and the war was won even before it started.....

It was a great blunder by the USA.....

It might have escalated to a conflict between the US and Russia, but got simer in time.....
 

W.G.Ewald

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Georgia to reinvestigate 2008 war loss to Russia | Reuters

Georgia will re-investigate its disastrous five-day 2008 war with Russia to see whether President Mikheil Saakashvili was partly to blame, Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili said on Wednesday.

Ivanishvili, a billionaire who became prime minister after his opposition coalition defeated Saakashvili's former ruling party last October, has been trying to assert his supremacy over the president, creating an awkward power struggle.
 

W.G.Ewald

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maomao

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Russian POV!
 
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Austin

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Georgian War Documentary

 
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