Responsibility for the Russo-Georgian War

Both sides of the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia blamed each other for starting the war.

A number of reports and researchers (among them independent Russian experts) concluded that the conflict started much earlier than the Georgian military operation which began on 7 August at 23:35 and that Russia was responsible for the war. Some have argued that shelling carried out by South Ossetian separatists in early August was done to trigger a Georgian military response and therefore a Russian military intervention.

Combatants' positions

Georgia

Georgia first said that its military offensive responded to Ossetian shelling of Georgian villages, and it intended to "restore constitutional order" in South Ossetia. Georgia also said it aimed to counter a Russian invasion. During a United Nations Security Council meeting on 8 August, Georgia said that the first Russian troops entered South Ossetia at 5:30 am on 8 August. In a decree ordering the general mobilisation published on 9 August, Saakashvili noted that the Russian troops had advanced through the Roki tunnel on 8 August (after the Georgian attack). The Georgian government continued to maintain its position, saying that around 11:30 pm on 7 August intelligence information was received that 150 Russian army vehicles had entered Georgian territory through the Roki Tunnel. In an interview with Der Spiegel, Saakashvili said that he "wanted to stop the Russian troops before they could reach Georgian villages." "When our tanks moved toward Tskhinvali, the Russians bombed the city. They were the ones – not us – who reduced Tskhinvali to rubble." Georgia released intercepted telephone calls purporting to show that part of a Russian armoured regiment crossed into South Ossetia nearly a full day before Georgia's attack on the capital, Tskhinvali, late on August 7.

Russia

Russia says it acted to defend Russian citizens in South Ossetia, and its own peacekeepers stationed there. The Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia allegedly suffered casualties during the war. According to a senior Russian official, the first Russian combat unit was ordered to move through the Roki Tunnel at around dawn of 8 August (after the Georgian attack had begun). Defending Russia's decision to launch attack in uncontested Georgia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Russia had no choice but to target the military infrastructure sustaining the Georgian offensive. Initially, Russia went as far as accusing Georgia of committing genocide against Ossetians. It was claimed that Georgia codenamed its attack Operation "Clear Field". Russia also claimed that Georgia was planning to launch a two-day Operation "Rock" to retake Abkhazia. Russia codenamed its military action "Operation to Force Georgia to Peace".

Three years after the August War, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev admitted NATO would have been expanded to admit ex-Soviet republics if Russia had not invaded Georgia in 2008 to defend a rebel region. "If you ... had faltered back in 2008, the geopolitical situation would be different now," Medvedev said in a speech to soldiers at a Vladikavkaz base. In August 2012, Vladimir Putin said that Russia had drawn up a plan to counter a Georgian attack long before the August 2008 conflict in the Caucasus. He said the plan was developed by the Russian General Staff in late 2006-early 2007 and it was negotiated with Putin, who was serving his second presidential term in that period. According to Putin, South Ossetian militia were trained under this plan. However, he refused to reveal if he insisted on the use of force when the war began.

South Ossetia

The South Ossetian government in Tskhinvali called for Russian help to prevent "genocide" when the Georgian bombardment began, saying that Tskhinvali was under "the most frightful fire".

Abkhazia

When Abkhazia launched a military operation to gain the Kodori Gorge, President Sergei Bagapsh said: "Maybe in order to achieve our goals we will have to violate certain parts of the Moscow Agreement of May 14, 1994 on a ceasefire but we were not the first to violate them."

Arrival of the Russian army in South Ossetia

Life Goes On (news article)

"Life Goes On" (russian: «Жизнь продолжается») is an article published in the 3 September 2008 issue of the Russian Ministry of Defence's official newspaper, ''Krasnaya Zvezda''. It was also posted on the newspaper's web site. The article was based on the interview of an officer who had taken part in the military operation in South Ossetia in August 2008. After the initial publication, it was picked up by blogs and internet news agencies, as it contradicted the official timeline of Russian incursion into South Ossetia. However, the article was later corrected. Soon, the article was pulled from the newspaper's web site, the disappearance having been commented upon by the mainstream media, including ''The New York Times''. The article details the war experience of Russian captain of the 135th regiment named Denis Sidristy. He said that his unit had been ordered to cease a training exercise and move to Tskhinvali on August 7, and he was there when the hostilities broke out. Sidristy said that he witnessed the Georgian attack on Tskhinvali around midnight. After a query by ''The New York Times'' about the article, ''Krasnaya Zvezda'' later published an article in which Captain Sidristy said the correct date for the advance to Tskhinvali was August 8, not August 7.

Other reports by Russian media

On 4 August 2008, ''Life.ru'' reported that after the end of the "Kavkaz 2008" exercises, the paratroopers from Pskov remained to occupy the key positions on the Roki and Mamison passes on the border. Several battalions of 58th Army were moved close to the border. The South Ossetian sources told the newspaper that the deployment of troops began on the night of 2–3 August 2008. ''Life.ru'' reported, "The deployment of the Russian military hardware near the Roki tunnel will allow as soon as possible to move troops to help the peacemaking forces."

On 6 August 2008, ''OsRadio'' reported that the volunteers were also arriving in Tskhinvali from Moscow.

On 8 August 2008, ''Nezavisimaya Gazeta'' published an article by journalist who had spent previous three days in Chechnya. She saw the base of the Battalion "Vostok" in Gudermes somewhere in that time frame. Chechen soldiers were preparing to go to South Ossetia. It was claimed that they were going to support the peacekeeping mission. At 3:30 am they began departing with military official reminding them not to forget their passports and military IDs. However, the article does not mention that there was any war in South Ossetia.

On 12 August 2008, ''Komsomolskaya Pravda'' reported that in South Ossetia several soldiers were wounded and one was killed, who were from Tatarstan. Five days before he was killed in South Ossetia, Evgeny Parfenov warned his parents not to call him because it would be hard to reach him by phone. Lieutenant Aleksandr Popov was participating in the exercises on the height near Tskhinvali when his group was requested by the intelligence to reinforce them. According to Popov's mother, Popov told her he could see how the Georgians fired on Tskhinvali one week before the war. The mother of Eldar Lotfullin, 23-year-old contract soldier, said that she was able to call her son for the last time at around 10 pm MSK on 7 August 2008. Eldar Lotfullin told journalist that the Georgian tanks fired on his barracks on 8 August. On 13 August, ''Izvestia'' reported that the unit (where Popov served) was participating in the exercises in the mountains of South Ossetia.

On 12 August 2008, ''Moskovskij Komsomolets'' reported that one Russian regular army officer had said on 9 August that he was preparing for the exercises in South Ossetia, but understood only at the last minute that he was going to war.

On 12 August 2008, ''APN'' reported that the residents of North Ossetia–Alania were able to see the movement of a large number of troops towards the Roki Tunnel beginning 6 pm on 7 August, however they couldn't believe that Russia was involved in the war until the morning of 8 August.

In August 2008, ''Life.ru'' reported that "22-year old contract soldier died on the first day of the bloody aggression in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone, when a barrage of fire hit the peaceful town." The soldier's mother said that his son called her on 7 August, but she did not know that he was in South Ossetia until his death.

On 15 August 2008, ''Permskie Novosti'' reported that a Russian soldier had called home on 10 August and told his mother: "We are there n South Ossetiasince 7 August. All of our 58th army."

On 15 August 2008, '' Vyatksky krai'' reported that the sister of soldier Vitaly (who was fighting in South Ossetia) said that her brother called on 6 August and he was going to move o unknown location later, on 7 August Vitaly told his sister that "we are going to the mountains."

On 15 August 2008, ''Komsomolskaya Pravda'' reported that 19-year-old Onar Aliev from the 19th Motor Rifle Division died in South Ossetia on the night of 8 August during the shelling of Tskhinvali. His mother said her son called for the last time on 4 August and told her that he would participate in the "true exercises" somewhere near Abkhazia.

On 15 August 2008, '' Trud'' made a report about junior sergeant Aleksandr Sviridov who was killed in South Ossetia. He called his mother on 2 August and said: "There won't be any holiday. There are intensified preparations; we frequently have parachute jumps. Apparently, we will be deployed to somewhere."

On 17 August 2008, ''Komsomolskaya Pravda'' reported that Aleksandr Plotnikov, the soldier from 693rd Regiment, said that he knew in early August that there would be war when two companies of his regiment were sent to the mountains near Tskhinvali.

In August 2008, ''Life.ru'' reported that 29-year Aleksey Tarasov, who was killed in action in South Ossetia, was buried in his village. His military friend was quoted as saying that their unit was allegedly deployed to South Ossetia for the exercises, but suddenly the war broke out.

On 26 August 2008, '' Drug dlya druga'' reported that one soldier's mother couldn't call her son for three days before 8 August because his phone was blocked (i.e. unreachable). At 3 am on 8 August her son was sent to Tskhinvali, where he was wounded.

On 27 August 2008, ''Vecherny Saransk'' reported that Yunir Bikkinyaev, contract soldier of 135th Regiment, stopped to answer the phone calls on 7 August and his parents were worried. He later acknowledged he did so not to frighten his family.

On 28 August 2008, ''Gazeta Yuga'' published a report about Zalim Gegraev, a wounded soldier from 1st company of the peacemaking battalion, who fought in South Ossetia. Gegraev's mother said that her son had told her that he was going to Tskhinvali before the war started. She also said that he had been to South Ossetia previously and when he was there, his phone did not work. Then Zalim spoke to journalist: "We had been there to participate in military exercises for a month in those areas before this. They ended, however we were not withdrawn. Then the order came to move to Tskhinvali. On 8 August we were near the town and waited for further instructions. I didn't even think that I could see such thing..."

On 1 September 2008, journalist of ''Nezavisimaya Gazeta'' wrote: "As early as 6 August I saw our army in full combat readiness near the Georgian border."

On 2 September 2008, it was reported that several soldiers' mothers had sent letter to Commissioner for Human Rights in Perm Krai. One mother wrote that on 3 August his son said his unit might be deployed to the border. Another mother said that his son told her on 9 August that his unit was sent to South Ossetia on the evening of 7 August.

On 11 September 2008, Yulia Latynina wrote that journalists who were sent in advance to cover the war reported on 6 August 2008 that they have seen "58th Army in full combat readiness on the other eorgianside of the Roki tunnel".

On 15 September 2008, ''Novaya Gazeta'' reported that the South Ossetian soldier had told journalist that after the end of "Kavkaz 2008" exercises 80 tanks remained in South Ossetia.

On 15 September 2008, ''RIA Novosti'' reported that Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said: "There were excesses by all parties, but this was a war, and when you see on night, that you are being fired upon and you're on the move, while you're advancing to help Tskhinvali, then your response can not be precisely accurate and cannot avoid hurting anyone."

On 21 September 2008, Rossiya-1 TV reported that the wife of Lieutenant Sergey Shevelev, intelligence officer of the peacemaking battalion who died in South Ossetia, said that her husband called her every day and they talked casually. However, on 1 August he sent her text message saying "Everything is normal ... Watch TV. That's all."

In October 2008, ''Duel'' reported that soldier Maksim Pasko, who died near Gori on 12 August, sent several SMSes. One SMS was sent on 3 August 2008 and said: "Don't worry too much, the Georgian mercenaries are battering Tskhinvali. We were given orders to go there." Another SMS, sent on 5 August 2008, said: "Yesterday, our artillerists were messing with Georgia. 22 were killed and 150 injured."

In January 2009, ''Krasnaya Zvezda'' published an interview with the priest, Father Mikhail, who said: "I attended military exercise "Kavkaz-2008" in South Ossetia, where our paratroopers worked out the skills of combat in the mountains. Unfortunately, those skills became useful too soon..."

In May 2009, ''Rossiyskaya Gazeta'' reported that hero of Russia Denis Vetchinov, who died in South Ossetia, left the base of the Motor Rifle Division in Vladikavkaz for Tskhinvali on the early morning of 7 August 2008.

In June 2009, Russian General Vyacheslav Borisov told Echo of Moscow in an interview: "You know, we even regularly hold exercises in those areas. And our troops had full practice by holding exercises one week before right there in the same place. And we had only concluded and went. Therefore, marching toward Tskhinvali, we performed much better than those units under central command and the units of the district that were dusted off, did you know?"

In July 2009, Russian journalist Ella Polyakova wrote that some Russian soldiers had told her that they arrived in South Ossetia on 4 August 2008, while their records claimed that they were stationed in North Ossetia.

In July 2009, Russian blogger published an interview with soldier Maksim Belyaev, who said: "Our combined battalion of peacekeepers was stationed in North Ossetia. We should have replaced in August another battalion of the peacekeeping mission, located in Tskhinvali. We went to South Ossetia on the night of August 7. Around noon of 7 August, the column was near Tskhinvali on the bypass road."

In January 2010, Russian military portal ''Zaotechestvo.ru'' published the recollections of several Russian soldiers. Aleksandr Slanov, the head of the North Ossetian regional branch of "Union of Paratroopers", the NGO of veterans of the Airborne Forces and Special Forces, said: "In the night of 4–5 August, I and five other paratroopers left for Tskhinvali. We arrived at 5 AM." Tanker Vladimir said: "We arrived in Khetagurovo in the morning of 7 August. Our task was to destroy the Georgian fortified district, that was located on the height near Khetagurovo."

In 2012, Anatoly Khrulyov, the commander of the 58th Army, said in an interview that "For me, the war began in my workplace." He said that the decision to reinforce the Russian peacekeeping force was made on 5 August 2008. Khrulyov said that Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of the Combined Peacekeeping Forces called him on the night of 7–8 August and said that General Mamuka Kurashvili had warned him that Georgia was going to launch a large-scale military operation.

Reports by the Western media

On 18 August 2008, ''Le Figaro'' published the report by journalist who was told by a young Russian soldier at some checkpoint in Georgia that he came from Shali, Chechen Republic and that they left on 5 August 2008.

Georgian military interviews

Georgian soldiers told EurasiaNet that they thought their initial mission in South Ossetia was to stop attacks on Georgian villages. One senior lieutenant from 4th Brigade said: "Our goal was to put an end to fighting in the area and take control. Nobody in the army expected a war with Russia." One unnamed Georgian defense ministry source said: "The main thing is that the scope of the threat was underestimated, while our own combat capabilities were overestimated." Georgian military sources said that an attack had earlier been expected from Abkhazia, but not from South Ossetia. The 4th Brigade senior lieutenant said that they "were preparing for something in May when Georgia was denied NATO membership Membership Action Plan" but there "were no preparations made" for a military operation in South Ossetia in August. "Many were on vacation and we were preparing to go Iraq in the fall."

On 7 August 2008, the 4th brigade loaded tanks and missile launchers on a train bound for the Georgian city of Gori. On the night of 7–8 August, the 4th Brigade launched a three-pronged offensive on South Ossetian positions in Tskhinvali and in two Ossetian villages - Znauri and Khetagurovo. One of the assaults intended to divert South Ossetian militia forces away from the main objective. After Tskhinvali was nearly encircled, Georgian troops then tried to establish control over a key road to the north, one mid-ranking commander said. The road was being defended by South Ossetian garrison near the village of Tbeti. As Georgian soldiers were engaged with the South Ossetian garrison, the first Russian tanks appeared, the commander said. "We destroyed one tank after another, but they kept coming," the anonymous commander said.

Phone intercepts

In September 2008, Georgia released recordings of intercepted phone calls to prove that the Russian military moved into South Ossetia before the Georgian military operation began. ''The New York Times'' made its own translation from the original Ossetian language into Russian and then into English. Senior American officials reviewed the recordings and considered them as "credible if not conclusive." The calls were made by Ossetian border guards on a Georgian cellular network. According to a call intercepted at 3:52 am on 7 August, a supervisor at the South Ossetian border guard headquarters asked a guard at the tunnel with the surname Gassiev: "Listen, has the armor arrived or what?" The guard replied: "The armor and people." Asked if they had gone through, he replied, "Yes, 20 minutes ago; when I called you, they had already arrived."

At 3:41 am, Gassiev told the supervisor in the first call that a Russian colonel had asked to inspect military vehicles that "crowded" the tunnel. Gassiev said: "The commander, a colonel, approached and said, ‘The guys with you should check the vehicles.’ Is that O.K.?" Asked about the identity of the colonel, Gassiev answered: "I don’t know. Their superior, the one in charge there. The BMP’s and other vehicles were sent here and they’ve crowded there. The guys are also standing around. And he said that we should inspect the vehicles. I don’t know. And he went out." Gassiev informed the supervisor at 3:52 am that armored vehicles had left the tunnel. They were commanded by a colonel Kazachenko.

Russia did not dispute veracity of the calls. According to Russian press reports after the war, Colonel Andrei Kazachenko who was mentioned in the recording, served in the 135th Motorized Rifle Regiment.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Uvarov claimed that on 7 August Russian peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia was supplied with fuel and products. Georgia disputed this Russian explanation, arguing that rotations of the Russian peacekeeping battalion could be conducted only in daylight and after not less than a month of advance notification according to a mutual agreement in 2004.

OSCE monitors

A former senior Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) official, Ryan Grist, who was in charge of unarmed monitors in South Ossetia at war's start, told the BBC in November 2008 that he had been warning of Georgia's military activity before its move into the South Ossetia region, saying there was a "severe escalation" and that this "would give the Russian Federation any excuse it needed in terms of trying to support its own troops."

According to Grist, it was Georgia that launched the first military strikes against Tskhinvali. "It was clear to me that the eorgianattack was completely indiscriminate and disproportionate to any, if indeed there had been any, provocation,” he said. “The attack was clearly, in my mind, an indiscriminate attack on the town, as a town.” Grist's views were echoed by Stephen Young, who was another senior OSCE official in Georgia at the time. According to him, there had been no extensive shelling of the Georgian villages on the evening or night of August 7. Young added, that if there had been shelling of Georgian villages that evening, the OSCE monitors at the scene would have heard it. According to him, the monitors only heard occasional small arms fire.

Georgia, and some Western diplomats in Tbilisi later questioned Grist's objectivity. The OSCE curbed the attempts by ''The New York Times'' to interview the monitors, saying they would not be publicly engaged in disagreement. Terhi Hakala, head of the OSCE mission to Georgia, called the monitors' claims "a bit irrelevant." OSCE Deputy Spokeswoman Virginie Coulloudon told the journalists that the organization's monitors make "patrol reports" from the ground "on a daily basis." Coulloudon also said that "the OSCE is not in a capacity to say who started the war and what happened before the night of ugust7-8." On 5 August 2008, the tripartite monitoring group, which included Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observers and representatives of Russian peacekeepers in the region, issued a report that said there was evidence of attacks against ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia. The report also stated that South Ossetian separatists were using heavy weapons against the Georgian villages, which was prohibited by a 1992 cease-fire agreement.

''The Wall Street Journal'' (WSJ) wrote that in an interview Grist acknowledged he crossed through Russian lines without authorization on his own initiative to determine the facts, which ultimately cost him his OSCE job. He was forced to resign from the OSCE immediately after the war. WSJ adds Grist remains "scathing" about Georgian actions before and during the war, but says that some of his comments have been overinterpreted and quotes Grist saying "I have never said there was no provocation by the South Ossetians." "What I have said is that the response from the Georgian authorities was absolutely disproportionate," said Ryan Grist.

In an interview with ''The Wall Street Journal'', Ryan Grist said that on 12 August he went to visit a friend in Tskhinvali, Lira Tskhovrebova, who was well connected with the separatist authorities. Friends took him to see two top South Ossetian officials. On the road to Tbilisi Grist was stopped by South Ossetian militia. He shouted the names of the officials he had just been meeting "so they wouldn't shoot" him. In December 2008, an investigation by the Associated Press revealed that Lira Tskhovrebova was not an independent activist as she claimed. She was allegedly connected to South Ossetian KGB and Russian intelligence agency, the FSB. Matthew Bryza, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of the United States, also expressed his doubts about Tskhovrebova.

Georgian Parliamentary Commission Report

A Georgian parliamentary commission, which studied the war, released a report on 18 December 2008.

The report said in its beginning that Russia’s aggression against Georgia did not start in August 2008 and recalled the events in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in early 90s. The report then gave a detailed timeline of events preceding the war. It also said that the Georgian authorities' failure "to de-legitimize the presence of Russian peacekeepers can be considered the major shortcoming of the Georgian authorities in a pre-August period." The Russian peacekeepers were full-pledge participants of the aggression against Georgia, according to the commission. "On the one hand, Russia used ‘attack’ on ‘peacekeepers’ as one of the pretexts for launching the aggression and on the other hand, ttackswere carried out on the Georgian citizens from their eacekeepers’headquarters hich was based on Tskhinvali"

The report said that despite having information on tensions in the South Ossetian conflict zone, the Georgian authorities failed "to properly analyze" the scales of the threat. "The Georgian authorities perceived large-scale Russian military exercises at the Georgian borders in late July and continuing attacks in the conflict zone as a traditional wave of provocations." The report also criticized the National Security Council (NSC), "It is obvious that the Security Council has failed to plan the actions in a timely manner, which would have been adequate to the anticipated situation and consequently, from the morning of August 7 it had to act in force majeure regime." The commission said that the government members’ actions during the war sometimes lacked coordination. The report said that the government did not stick to the formal procedures laid out in the special decree envisaging setting up of a governmental commission during the emergency situations. The commission also criticized the Georgian Foreign Ministry, saying that "there is no special action plan and written instructions for ambassadors on how to act in the emergency situations; the activities of ambassadors are not controlled properly either."

The report also says that "serious shortcomings" were revealed in the defense system. The commission said that "problems persisted in the communication system." It also said that the war revealed "inadequacy" of the reserve troops system. "The Defense Ministry has failed to carry out strategic planning properly," the report continued.

The commission called on the General Prosecutor’s Office to investigate all the cases of violation of international humanitarian law regardless of who has committed them on either side.

EU Independent Fact Finding Mission Report

An independent, international fact-finding mission headed by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini was established by the EU to determine the causes of the war. The commission was given a budget of €1.6 million and relied on the expertise of military officials, political scientists, historians and international law experts. The report was published on 30 September 2009. The report said it could not claim "veracity or completeness in an absolute sense", since it incorporated what had been available to the Mission at the time of writing.

The report blamed Georgia for starting the war, stating that open hostilities started "... with a large-scale Georgian military operation against the town of Tskhinvali and the surrounding areas, launched in the night of 7 to 8 August 2008" although it noted that "... any explanation of the origins of the conflict cannot focus solely on the artillery attack on Tskhinvali in the night of 7/8 August" since "... it was only the culminating point of a long period of increasing tensions, provocations and incidents", and there was "... no way to assign overall responsibility for the conflict to one side alone." The Georgian reaction to South Ossetian attacks on Georgian villages before August 7 were found to be necessary and proportionate.

The beginning of the armed conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia was dated by the commission to 7 August 2008 at 23.35; however, the commission acknowledged that "a violent conflict had already been going on before in South Ossetia," and "President Saakashvili’s order on 7 August 2008 at 23.35 and the ensuing military attack on Tskhinvali ..has to be seen as but one element in an on-going chain of events for military violence had also been reported before the outbreak of the open hostilities on 7 August 2008." The open hostilities between Georgia and Russia are considered to have begun on 8 August 2008. The report acknowledged that "volunteers or mercenaries" entered Georgia from Russia before the Georgian military operation and there was the presence of "some" non-peacekeeping Russian troops in South Ossetia before the public decision for an intervention was made by the Russian leadership.

The report stated that "there was no ongoing armed attack by Russia before the start of the Georgian operation. Georgian claims of a large-scale presence of Russian armed forces in South Ossetia prior to the Georgian offensive could not be substantiated by the mission. It could also not be verified that Russia was on the verge of such a major attack."

The commission said that a government "is generally not prevented" from using armed force in internal conflicts, e.g. against insurgents starting a civil war or against violent secessionists. However, the report said that Georgia had a non-use of force commitment under the legally binding international documents, such as the 1992 Sochi Agreement and 1996 Memorandum on Measures to Provide Security and Strengthen Mutual Trust between the Sides in the Georgian-South Ossetian Conflict.

The commission said that the South Ossetian attacks on Georgian villages (Zemo Nikozi, Kvemo Nikozi, Avnevi, Nuli, Ergneti, Eredvi and Zemo Prisi) were equivalent to an "attack by the armed forces of a State on the territory of another State" resembling the situations described in Art. 3(a) of UN Resolution 3314. As the South Ossetian attacks were "primarily" directed against Georgian peacekeepers and against Georgian police, this was an attack by the South Ossetian armed forces on the land forces of Georgia. The commission also said "To the extent that South Ossetian militia initiated the shooting on Georgian villages, police and peacekeepers before the outbreak of the armed conflict," South Ossetia violated the prohibition of the use of force. It also noted that Georgian attack on 7 August was a response, albeit not proportionate, to South Ossetian attacks in the following paragraphs:

As far as legality of use of force by Russia was concerned, the report took a "differentiated" approach, dividing "the Russian reaction to the Georgian attack" into two phases – the one, which was the immediate reaction "in order to defend Russian peacekeepers" in Tskhinvali and the second one, "the invasion of Georgia by Russian armed forces reaching far beyond the administrative boundary of South Ossetia", which was "beyond the reasonable limits of defence".

The commission stated that an attack by Georgian forces on Russian peacekeepers deployed in Georgia – "if not in self-defence against a Russian attack", would not be justified. However, the commission concluded that an attack on Russian peacekeepers was not a sufficient condition to be used for self-defence by Russia and "the fact of the Georgian attack on the Russian peacekeepers’ basis could not be definitely confirmed by the mission." The commission said that Russian peacekeepers, if they "had been directly attacked", had the right to immediate, necessary and proportionate response. However, "doubts remain whether the Russian peacekeepers were attacked in the first place," and the mission could not establish whether, at the time of the alleged attacks on Russian peacekeepers’ bases, the peacekeepers had lost their protection due to their participation in the hostilities. The commission concluded that the expulsion of the Georgian forces from South Ossetia, and the defence of South Ossetia as a whole was not a legitimate objective, and according to international law, the Russian actions as a whole, were not neither "necessary nor proportionate" to protect Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia. The commission concluded that Russia did not have the right to justify its actions as "a mere reinforcement and fulfilment" of its peacekeeping mission.

The commission concluded that the South Ossetian separatists could not validly invite Russia to support them militarily. It also concluded that "Russian military activities against the Georgian military forces were not justified as collective self-defence under international law." The commission also concluded that Russian military actions also could not be justified as a humanitarian intervention.

The report further stated that Russian citizenship, conferred to the vast part of Abkhaz and Ossetians can not be considered legally binding under international law. The purportedly naturalised Abkhazs and South Ossetians are not Russian nationals according to international law. The commission said that the constitutional obligation to protect Russian nationals could not serve as a justification for intervention under international law. Russian domestic law could not be invoked as a justification for a breach of an international law. The commission concluded that Russian intervention in Georgia was not justified as a rescue operation for Russian citizens in Georgia.

With respect to the war's second theater, the report found the joint Abkhaz-Russian attack on the Kodori Gorge was unjustified under international law and was an illegal use of force. Russian support of Abkhazia was not justified as collective self-defence in favour of Abkhazia, because third-party involvement in an internal military conflict in support of the seceding party is not allowed. The commission concluded: "The use of force by Abkhazia was not justified under international law and was thus illegal. The same applies to the Russian support for Abkhaz use of force." General Russian involvement in the conflict in Georgia was a violation of the fundamental international legal prohibition of the use of force.

The report found that Russian and South Ossetian allegations of genocide committed by the Georgian side were "neither founded in law nor substantiated by factual evidence." The report found that during the conflict "all sides to the conflict - Georgian forces, Russian forces and South Ossetian forces - committed violations of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law." The report also found facts of ethnic cleansing of Georgians, saying that "several elements suggest the conclusion that ethnic cleansing was indeed practised against ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia both during and after the August 2008 conflict." The commission said that in many cases Russian forces did not act to prevent or stop South Ossetian forces from committing acts of deliberate violence against civilians during the conflict and after the cease-fire.

The report also concluded that South Ossetia and Abkhazia did not have a right to secede from Georgia (which they did in the early 1990s), because according to the ''uti possidetis'' principle, only constituent republics such as Georgia, but not territorial sub-units such as South Ossetia or Abkhazia had the right to independence during the breakup of the Soviet Union. Their recognition was "consequently" contrary to international law.

Reception

In February 2009, a high-ranking Georgian official suspected that one German expert, that submitted a research paper to Tagliavini, worked for organizations financed by Russian energy company Gazprom.

In September 2009, before the report was published, former Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar said in an interview: " hey seem to belooking at things from a very, we can say, interesting point of view, forgetting history, forgetting context, and forgetting one simple point: that during the war, no Georgian soldier, no plane, no other military equipment left the legal, internationally recognized territory of Georgia. It was Georgian territory, and no Georgian soldier eftthe borders of Georgia."

Before the report was published, a spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Igor Lyakin-Frolov, said the Russian side had been "absolutely fair and honest" with Tagliavini's commission and felt optimistic about the report's objectivity. He said Russia was hoping that the commission would allocate blame to the countries that helped arm Georgia, in particular Ukraine. He added that Russia would consider it "unfair" if the investigation divided blame for the war equally.

EU countries declared in a statement the report was not about apportioning blame, but they stated it could "contribute toward a better understanding of the origins and the course of last year's conflict".

Georgian state minister for reintegration told the BBC that, although most of the facts in the report were accurate, he disagreed with some parts of it. "I disagree with the notion that Georgia used excessive force in the attack on Tskhinvali because, as I mentioned, there are ample evidences of Russian deployment and these were not just peacekeepers, so one can hardly judge what is proportionate," said Temur Iakobashvili. "One can hardly judge what is proportionate or disproportionate in this case."

Svante E. Cornell argued that although Tagliavini’s report did claim that Georgia started the war, that should not be confused with the question of responsibility. He also criticised the argument that Georgia was legally bound by agreements not to use force, because the mission failed to discuss their validity if broken by either the South Ossetians or by Russia. Cornell also criticised the report for not taking account of the considerable evidence accumulated by scholars such as Andrey Illarionov.

In 2010, Yulia Latynina, Russian journalist, criticised the Tagliavini report, saying: "A war, it turns out, is begun by he icwho responds to the actions of an aggressor .. So when Ossetian 'volunteers' burn Georgian villages - that is not a war. But if they he Georgiansrespond to this, then here you, accursed ones, have started a war. Following the logic of the Tagliavini commission, the Georgians ought not to have responded. Even if Russian tanks had reached Tbilisi, and the Georgians had responded, they, the swine, would have started a war. The logic is irreproachable: if the Georgians had not responded, there would have been no war." Latynina argued that according to the Tagliavini mission "Georgia had no right to send a single shell into the city f Tskhinvali But the opposite side had a right to burn down Nuli, and that was not an infringement of human rights." Latynina concluded that the commission showed a "cowardice" before "an international hooligan" Vladimir Putin.

John B. Dunlop concluded that the EU report would have come to different conclusions (who and when began the war) if it had taken into consideration Andrey Illarionov's findings and documented timeline.

The role of Russian peacekeepers

In October 2008, Konstantin Timerman, the commander of the Russian peacekeeping battalion said in an interview with ''Izvestia'' that on the morning of 8 August the Russians opened fire in response only after the Georgians had opened fire on the observer post in the southern part of Tskhinvali.

In 2009, the Russian side told the Tagliavini commission that the Russian peacekeepers suffered the first casualties at 6:35 am on 8 August, when the Georgian tank was firing on the observer post on the roof of the peacekeepers' base. As a result one soldier of the battalion died, another one was wounded and the part of the building was destroyed. By noon two peacekeepers had died and five were wounded. Georgia said that it only targeted Russian peacekeepers in self-defence, after coming under fire from them.

WikiLeaks

After the disclosure of alleged US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks, the dispatches sent during the initial stage of the war from Tbilisi were published. Former US Ambassador to Georgia John F. Tefft alleged that the Georgians did not intend to start the conflict, but rather were dragged into the war. The diplomat’s cables were initially published by Russian Reporter magazine, a Moscow-based weekly.

“From evidence available to us it appears the South Ossetians started today’s fighting,” reads an alleged August 8 dispatch from Tefft. “The Georgians are now reacting by calling up more forces and assessing their next move. It is unclear to the Georgians, and to us, what the Russian angle is and whether they are supporting South Ossetians, or actively trying to help control the situation.” He reportedly wrote on August 8 that “As late as 22:30 Georgian Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials were still hopeful that the unilateral cease-fire announced by President Saakashvili will hold. Only when the South Ossetians opened up with artillery on Georgian villages, did the offensive to take Tskhinvali begin.” “All evidence available to the country team supports eorgian President MikheilSaakashvili’s statement that this fight was not Georgia’s original intention,” reads the cable. “Key Georgian officials, who would have had responsibility for an attack on South Ossetia have been on leave, and the Georgians only began mobilizing August 7 once the attack was well underway.”

The cables also describe the chronology of events. On 7 August, when the fighting escalated, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze told the US Ambassador that "heavy Russian equipment was being moved south from Java - a military base north of the conflict zone, which Georgians have not seen -- even in tense times -- in the past." When General Kulakhmetov, the Head of the Russian peacekeepers in Tskhinvali, met with Temur Iakobashvili, Kulakhmetov said that he "does not control anything" and that the South Ossetians were "shooting at the Georgians behind my back."

EurasiaNet.org contacted the US Embassy in Kyiv, where Tefft then served, in an attempt to confirm the veracity of the cables. But the embassy declined to comment. Several Russian commentators have interpreted the same cables differently, saying that this proved that the Georgians started the war.

Statements by Commanders-in-chief

On 11 August 2008, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili wrote: "The Kremlin designed this war. Earlier this year, Russia tried to provoke Georgia by effectively annexing another of our separatist territories, Abkhazia. When we responded with restraint, Moscow brought the fight to South Ossetia. Ostensibly, this war is about an unresolved separatist conflict. Yet in reality, it is a war about the independence and the future of Georgia. And above all, it is a war over the kind of Europe our children will live in. Let us be frank: This conflict is about the future of freedom in Europe."

On 24 August 2008, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili had a lengthy televised speech. He remembered that after 2004 Adjara crisis he phoned President Putin and thanked him. "I remember that conversation very well; in response to my polite remarks, he said roughly: ‘Now remember, in Adjara we did not intervene, but you won’t have any gifts from us in South Ossetia or Abkhazia.’ That’s what he said to me." He then said "I suppose that Russia started thinking about military intervention in Georgia sometime in 2007." " n July 2007Russia announced a withdrawal from the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, limiting military forces in uropeand the Caucasus." Saakashvili then slammed the EU’s reaction to Russia’s admission of violating Georgian airspace in July 2008. "This admission by Russia was a clear sign that they were testing western reaction," he stated. Saakashvili said that his first meeting with Medvedev in June 2008 in St. Petersburg was good; while at the next meeting with Medvedev in Astana in July 2008, the Russian president’s stance was changed and "it was clear that they ussiawere preparing for something bad." Saakashvili said that Georgia had expected a Russian attack from Abkhazia, rather than from South Ossetia, so major forces of the Georgian army were deployed in the Georgia's west. He said that as the situation deteriorated on 7 August, "we moved one brigade f the Georgian armed forcescloser to South Ossetia, and later another rigadeas well." "But our major forces were still deployed in the west; there was a brigade at Senaki military baseand we did not call back our brigade from Iraq, because I was deeply convinced up to the last minute that Russia would not engage in such a large-scale provocation," he said. "Although we were under fire from 120mm mortar launchers, I announced a unilateral ceasefire; at that time we already had one dead soldier in the village of Avnevi and four others were wounded; eorgian Defense Minister DavitKezerashvili was begging me to let him open artillery fire, because, he was telling me, otherwise he was unable to bring he wounded soldiersfrom he village But my response was that we could not open fire whatever happened," he said. Saakashvili also said that the Russian army had moved into South Ossetia before the war had even started. "When we ask our western partners: didn't you see them coming, they respond that their satellites were directed mainly on Iraq and that they could not fly over eorgia but it was impossible to see what was happening on the ground because it was cloudy. So it was a serious failure of international intelligence services; they would not have hidden this information from us, if they had known it; but they also did not know it," Saakashvili said.

In late August 2008, Georgian president Saakashvili said that he expected threat from Abkhazia and had most of the troops stationed near Abkhazia, adding: "I can tell you that if we'd intended to attack, we'd have withdrawn our best-trained forces from Iraq up front." He also said: "Some months ago, I was warned by Western leaders in Dubrovnik to expect an attack this summer."

On 1 October 2008, Dmitry Medvedev said: "During this time we demonstrated that Russia is a state that can defend its citizens and whose opinions should be taken into consideration by various countries, including by those that protect themselves by making friends with greater states."

In November 2008, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili at a conference in Riga, claimed that the August conflict in the Caucasus began in Ukraine when the Russian Black Sea Fleet left the base six days before the large-scale hostilities broke out. According to him, Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko tried unsuccessfully to stop the Russian fleet.

In December 2008, Georgian President Saakashvili declared: "I have always openly acknowledged that I ordered military action in South Ossetia -- as any responsible democratic leader would have done, and as the Georgian Constitution required me to do in defense of the country. I made this decision after being confronted by two facts. First, Russia had massed hundreds of tanks and thousands of soldiers on the border between Russian and Georgia in the area of South Ossetia. (...) Second, for a week Russian forces and their proxies engaged in a series of deadly provocations, shelling Georgian villages that were under my government's control -- with much of the artillery located in Tskhinvali, often within sites controlled by Russian peacekeepers. Then, on Aug. 7, Russia and its proxies killed several Georgian peacekeepers." He also said that when the crisis began to escalate, he tried to call Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on both August 6 and 7, but he did not answer.

In August 2011, Dmitry Medvedev said: "The moment of truth for me, as I realized later while analyzing those events in hindsight over and over again, came with the visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice." "Following that visit, my Georgian colleague simply dropped all communication with us. He simply stopped talking to us, he stopped writing letters and making phone calls. It was apparent that he had new plans now. And those plans were implemented later." Medvedev also said that he decided to attack Georgia without consulting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and that the two did not have a conversation until the following day.

On 8 August 2012, Russian Prime minister Dmitry Medvedev said: "Yes, we had our own relations with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, nonetheless considering in that moment Georgia's territorial integrity, however we had understood too that this was practically impossible." "I made my decision two-and-a-half hours after the Georgian army began the active fighting. Not earlier, because this was wrong, since this was the decision to use the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on foreign soil, I underline, the foreign territory. But not later too," he said. He also said that he contacted Putin on 8 August.

In 2014, former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili published an article in ''The Guardian'' where he wrote that for months prior to August 2008, "unidentified troops" "grabbed more and more control over Georgia's separatist regions, and were getting into a growing number of shooting matches with local law enforcement." According to him, Russian tank columns started to move into Georgia to the point when, on 7 August 2008, the Georgian armed forces were compelled to respond. Saakashvili claimed that if Georgia had not responded, Russian special forces could have easily reached Tbilisi within 24 hours. He claimed that he "couldn't afford to wait." By military response he managed "to gain time, raise the stakes, and ultimately save ... statehood and democracy." He pointed out if the west had reacted "properly" to the war in Georgia, "Ukraine would never have happened."

Statements by politicians

On 7 August, state-owned Rossiya TV showed Sergei Bagapsh, the president of Abkhazia, speaking at a meeting of the Abkhaz National Security Council. Bagapsh said: "I have spoken to the president of South Ossetia. It has more or less stabilized now. A battalion from the North Caucasus District has entered the area." By the evening of 7 August, Bagapsh had ordered the Abkhaz armed forces to raise combat readiness.

On 7 August 2008, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried Carl Bildt said that the crisis was due to provocations from the South Ossetian side and that Georgian forces were trying to restore "the constitutional order". On 9 August, Bildt evoked the memory of Adolf Hitler in condemning Russia's attack on Georgia, saying the protection of Russian citizens does not justify the invasion. "No state has the right to intervene militarily in the territory of another state simply because there are individuals there with a passport issued by that state or who are nationals of the state," he also said. "Attempts to apply such a doctrine have plunged Europe into war in the past... And we have reason to remember how Hitler used this very doctrine little more than half a century ago to undermine and attack substantial parts of central Europe".

A UN Security Council diplomat said: "Strategically, the Russians have been sending signals that they really wanted to flex their muscles, and they’re upset about Kosovo."

In late August 2008, Batu Kutelia, the deputy defence minister told the ''Financial Times'' that Georgia made the decision to seize Tskhinvali despite the fact that Georgia did not have enough anti-tank and air defences to protect itself against the possibility of serious resistance. He said that "At some point there was no choice." He also said that Georgia did not believe Russia would respond to its offensive against South Ossetia and was completely unprepared for the counter-attack that followed. "I didn't think it likely that a member of the UN Security Council and the OSCE would react like this," he said.

In August 2008, Modest Kolerov, former head of the Department for international and cultural ties with foreign countries of the President’s Office, admitted that the Kremlin had "a clear plan of action in the case of a conflict", and "the expediency with which the military operation was executed confirms that."

In August 2008, Vadim Kozaev, employee of Ministry of Internal Affairs of North Ossetia–Alania, and his brother Vladislav Kozaev, hero of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, alleged that Eduard Kokoity, the president of South Ossetia, knew in advance that the war was coming and fled Tskhinvali.

In August 2008, Steven Pifer, former Ambassador to Ukraine, said that Russian rhetoric and media narrative suggested they were preparing a large-scale operation. "The rhetoric that is coming out of Moscow, ethnic cleansing and genocide, is just way over the top," he said. "It's almost approaching the point where there is just no relationship to reality. But again, certainly the rhetoric is appropriate to a larger operation against Georgia to just stop and reverse whatever military gains the Georgians made in South Ossetia on ugust 7" Pifer said that Russia laid a well-prepared trap and the Georgians took the bait. "The Georgian leadership made a mistake on ugust 7 They should have understood from what they have seen from the Russians that the Russians were looking for a pretext. They he Georgiansgave them that pretext when they decided to go in a fairly large way into South Ossetia," he said. "The speed of the Russian response suggests that the Russians were ready, they were just waiting for the reason and they took that as the reason."

On 8 September 2008, Dana Rohrabacher (a senior Republican member of the United States House of Representatives) Foreign Affairs Committee, argued at a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee meeting, according to ''The Daily Telegraph'', that Georgia started the fighting on August 7, citing unidentified intelligence sources. Further, Telegraph reported that "Mr Rohrbacher insisted that Georgia was to blame", citing him: "The Georgians broke the truce, not the Russians, and no amount of talk of provocation and all this other stuff can alter that fact." Telegraph stated: "His comments got little attention in the United States but have been played prominently on state-run Russian television bulletins and other media."

In September 2008, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told reporters that Russia had no choice but to attack Georgia as Russia had been encircled on all sides. He said that Georgia "attacked South Ossetia with missiles, tanks, heavy artillery and ground troops. What were we supposed to do?" He claimed that if his country had not invaded, it would have been like Russia "getting a bloody nose and hanging its head down", and there would be a "second blow" into the North Caucasus. He insisted that President Dmitry Medvedev, not he, took all decisions regarding the conflict.

After the war, Irakli Okruashvili, who served as Defense Minister of Georgia, claimed that he and President Saakashvili had drawn up plans to retake South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2005, Abkhazia being the strategic priority. The alleged original plans called for a two-pronged offensive into South Ossetia aimed at taking Tskhinvali, the Roki Tunnel, and Java. Saakashvili believed that the United States would block a response by Russia through diplomatic channels, so he did not order the taking of the Roki Tunnel. When Russian forces responded, Georgian forces raced to contain them, but were outmaneuvered by the Russians. Okruashvili said that Russian response would be "inevitable" as after 2006, Russians repositioned and improved their military infrastructure in the North Caucasus, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia. The Georgian Army could have defended a few key towns from the Russians, but President Saakashvili "let the Russians in to avoid criticism and appear more of a victim".

In September 2008, Matthew Bryza, the deputy assistant secretary of State, said the contents of the recorded phone conversations (which were presented as evidence of Russian invasion on 7 August) were consistent with what Georgians believed on August 7, in the final hours before the war, when a cease-fire collapsed. "During the height of all of these developments, when I was on the phone with senior Georgian officials, they sure sounded completely convinced that Russian armored vehicles had entered the Roki Tunnel, and exited the Roki Tunnel, before and during the cease-fire," he stated. "I said, under instructions, that we urge you not to engage these Russians directly." Bryza had also said earlier in August 2008, "They felt they had to defend the honor of their nation and defend their villages. It was a very dangerous dynamic. That was part of an action-reaction, 'Guns of August' scenario that we tried to defuse."

On 18 September 2008, the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "On August 7th, following repeated violations of the ceasefire in South Ossetia, including the shelling of Georgian villages, the Georgian government launched a major military operation into Tskhinvali and other areas of the separatist region."

In September 2008, President Lech Kaczyński said in an interwiew that Georgia's decision to launch operation against South Ossetia was provoked: "This mistake was provoked. There was a test of strength, and Russia showed the face it wanted to show—an imperial face. Ukraine is now threatened. We won't see the rebirth of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union. This is just the old Russia."

In late October 2008, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in his interview with ''Kommersant'' said that during the war "there was a real danger of regime change in Georgia". He also said that "...Russia without question was prepared. Russian troops, by some miracle, turned up on the border at the right time." He stated that the next hot spots could become Crimea, Ukraine and others.

On 28 October 2008, Brigadier general Mamuka Kurashvili, a Georgian MoD official, testified before the parliamentary commission studying the Russo-Georgian war and said that his remarks on the launch of military operations on August 7, describing it as an effort "to restore constitutional order," were not authorized by superiors and were "impulsive." Kurashvili's interview with a Georgian TV on 7 August was the first statement made by a Georgian official indicating that Tbilisi had launched an operation against the breakaway region. "It he statementwas not agreed with anybody and I had no instruction from anybody o make that statement" Kurashvili told the commission. He added that "I had just come out from the battle when a journalist approached me... I was confused." He also stated that Russian commander Marat Kulakhmetov’s statements made during the early stage of the conflict about his inability to control the South Ossetian militias was a lie.

On 25 November 2008, Erosi Kitsmarishvili, Georgia's former ambassador to Russia, gave a testimony to a parliamentary commission in which he said that Georgian authorities were preparing for the conflict. According to Kitsmarishvili, Georgian officials told him in April 2008 that they planned to start a war in Abkhazia and that they had received a green light from the United States government to do so. He said that the Georgian government later decided to start the war in South Ossetia and continue into Abkhazia. According to him, "Russia was ready for this war, but the Georgian leadership started the military action first."

A report prepared for the British House of Lords comes to the conclusion that "The precise circumstances surrounding the August 2008 outbreak of the conflict are not yet clear but responsibility for the conflict was shared, in differing measures, by all the parties. There is evidence of a Russian military build-up prior to the August war. In addition, Russia’s use of force was disproportionate in response to provocative statements and military action by President Saakashvili. President Saakashvili seems to have drawn unfounded confidence in confronting Russia as a result of mixed signals from the US Administration. The origins of the conflict lie in both distant and more recent history in the region, involving population transfers, national grievances, commercial, political and military interests."

In July 2009, Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office, told journalists that the investigation of the war was almost complete. However, the guilt of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili in instigating the conflict in South Ossetia could not be proven.

In September 2009, Václav Havel, the first president of the Czech Republic, and other European politicians and thinkers wrote: "First, a big power will always find or engineer a pretext to invade a neighbour whose independence it resents. We should remember that Hitler accused the Poles of commencing hostilities in 1939, just as Stalin pinned the blame on the Finns when he invaded their country in 1940. Similarly, in the case of Georgia and Russia, the critical question is to determine which country invaded the other, rather than which soldier shot the first bullet."

In 2011, Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, told ''The Weekly Standard'' that she was "worried that the Russians would provoke eorgian president MikheilSaakashvili and that he would allow himself to be provoked. But in no way were the Georgians at fault..." She said: "They were doing all kinds of things to try to provoke the Georgians. The shelling of Georgian cities by the South Ossetians, Russian allies, is clearly what started the war." Rice also talked about Russian hatred for Georgians.

On 5 August 2012, a new documentary "A Lost Day" (Russian: "Потерянный день") was released on YouTube. The authors of the documentary were unknown. Several high-ranking military officials were featured. Yuri Baluyevsky, former Chief of the General Staff of Russia said that President Dmitry Medvedev didn't want to make a decision to go to war for some time. Baluyevsky said that it was Putin that had ordered to "retaliate" militarily against Georgia "after the first tensions", however "high-level officials" in Moscow had the fear of responsibility "until a kick in one place from Vladimir Vladimirovich in Beijing followed." Baluyevsky said that Putin made a decision to invade Georgia before Medvedev became President in May 2008 and a detailed military plan was worked out and specific orders were issued in advance.

On 8 August 2012, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the intense fighting began on 6 August 2008. "The information what was happening at the time of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th of the (August 2008), I received directly from Tskhinvali. Oddly enough, from journalists. Because the journalists had taken to my press secretary, Dmitry Peskov

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