Medvedev: ‘Barbaric Attack’ on S.Ossetia was a Test for Russia

The August war with Georgia and global financial crisis was among issues addressed by Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, in his first annual state of the nation address on November 5. In his address he told the lawmakers from the Russia’s lower and upper houses of the parliaments that Russia would not step back in the Caucasus.

“This year has become for our citizens not only the year of new hopes and achievements, the events have occurred which have become, I am sure, very significant for each citizen of our country and at the same time very serious test for the entire Russia,” he said in the beginning of his speech.

“These are barbaric aggression against South Ossetia, as well as the increasing global financial crisis – two extremely different problems, which have common features and, it can be said, common origin,” he said.

“The attack of the Georgian army on Russian peacekeepers has turned into a tragedy for thousands of people, for whole peoples. As a result of this provocation, tension has significantly increased in the entire Caucasus region. The conflict in the Caucasus was used as a pretext for bringing NATO military vessels into the Black Sea and afterwards, for imposing on Europe the U.S. anti-missile systems in an accelerated manner; that will in itself certainly trigger Russia’s response and I will speak about it [these measures] later [in the speech].”

“So, the local adventure of the Tbilisi regime has triggered fueling up tensions far outside the region, in entire Europe and worldwide. It questioned the efficiency of international institutions on providing security. It actually destabilized the principles of global order.”

Late in his speech Medvedev again spoke about the August events and said that Russia’s “peace enforcement” measures were not directed against “the Georgian people,” but aimed at protecting S.Ossetia from “criminal adventurism of the Tbilisi regime.”

“The decision on peace enforcement on aggressor and the operation carried out by our militaries were directed not against Georgia, not against the Georgian people, but for the sake of saving the residents of the republic and the Russian peacekeepers; for providing firm and long-term security of the peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia against the recurrence of criminal adventurism of the Tbilisi regime,” Medvedev said. “The Caucasus crisis has again demonstrated that use of force by one of the conflicting parties cannot provide long-standing solutions. In this connection, based on the norms of international law, we will further promote eradication of hotbeds of instability in the neighboring regions.

He said that number of conclusions could be done based on the August events.

“The first and major conclusion is that actually a new geopolitical reality has been established,” Medvedev said. “The August crisis has simply accelerated arrival of a moment of truth. We have really proven, including for them, who have sponsored the current ruling regime in Georgia, that we are capable to protect our citizens; we are capable to defend our national interests and to effectively perform peacekeeping duties.

Another conclusion, he said, was that Russia had “significantly restored its military potential.” He, however, also added that the Russia’s military command “should analyze not only the successes, but the shortcomings as well and learn the most serious lessons from it.”

“The reaction to the August 8 events and to Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has confirmed that we live in the world of double standards,” he continued. “We have acted responsibly in the interests of restoration of international legality and justice, understanding that any delay in those attempts would have been fraught with a more serious humanitarian disaster. Against this background, the stance of our partners seems extremely biased – quite recently they spared no efforts to achieve separation of Kosovo from Serbia bypassing the international law and to recognize this breakaway region as a subject of international law, and now they are criticizing Russia as if nothing has happened at all.”

While, criticizing the United States, Medvedev in his speech also noted that “the South Ossetian crisis has demonstrated the capability of effective decisions by Europe and we will enhance our relations with Europe in the field of security.” The EU’s French presidency mediated ceasefire between Russia and Georgia in August and then negotiated more detailed ceasefire deal in September.

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