The “Lost Day” film and the comments by Putin and Medvedev have revealed a great deal: that the invasion of Georgia in August 2008 was indeed a preplanned aggression and that so-called “Russian peacekeepers” in South Ossetia and Abkhazia were in fact the vanguard of the invading forces that were in blatant violation of Russia’s international obligations and were training and arming the separatist forces. The admission by Putin that Ossetian separatist militias acted as an integral part of the Russian military plan transfers legal responsibility for acts of ethnic cleansing of Georgian civilians and mass marauding inside and outside of South Ossetia to the Russian military and political leadership. Putin’s admission of the prewar integration of the Ossetian separatist militias into the Russian General Staff war plans puts into question the integrity of the independent European Union war report, written by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini that accused the Georgians of starting the war and attacking Russian “peacekeepers,” which, according to Tagliavini, warranted a Russian military response.[45]
Notes
1.
“Georgia Conflict: Key Statements,”
2.
“The Georgian War: Minute by Minute, August 9,”
3.
“South Ossetia Conflict FAQs,”
4.
Charles Clover, “Civilian Deaths Put at 133,”
5.
“Ustanovlenyy lichnosti 162 pogibshikh zhiteley Yuzhnoy Osetii: SKP RF,”
6.
Another example of such a prepared attack was the accusation made immediately after
the fighting that Georgia had destroyed protected historical buildings in Tskhinvali.
“For Russia’s part, which until now showed little interest in South Ossetia’s cultural
heritage, acts of destruction are [used] particularly as an argument to denounce Georgia
as a war criminal,” wrote the
7.
Quoted in “Put Out Even More Flags,”
8.
Robert Amsterdam, “Andrei Piontkovsky and the Doppelgänger Theory” (September 26, 2007). http://www.robertamsterdam.com.
9.
Zhirinovsky,
10.
Kovalev, “Putin’s War.”
11.
Luke Harding, “Russia’s Cruel Intention,”
12.
“Eduard Kokoity: My tam prakticheski vyrovnyali vse,”
13.
“Russian Invasion of Georgia: The Facts on Ethnic Cleansing of Georgians during the
Russian Invasion and Occupation,”
14.
“Georgia: Russian Cluster Bombs Kill Civilians,”
15.
The Russian Ministry of Defense denied in a news release on August 16, 2008, that
it had used the Iskander missile in South Ossetia. Because the missile landed in Gori,
which is situated
16.
Latynina, “200 km. tankov. O rossiysko-gruzinskoy voyne. Chast 2.”
17.
“Verslag onderzoeksmissie Storimans,”
18.
“Kamerbrief inzake het verslag van de onderzoekscommissie Storimans,”
19.
“Up In Flames: Humanitarian Law Violations and Civilian Victims in the Conflict over South Ossetia,” 113.
20.
Quoted in Nico Hines, “Russia Accused of Dropping Cluster Bombs on Georgian Civilians,”
21.
