Georgia Says Russia Makes ‘Guilty Plea’ on War

Georgian Foreign Minister, Grigol Vashadze, said President Medvedev’s December 24 remarks amounted to “plea of guilty.”

President Medvedev said in an interview with three main Russian television stations that Moscow was preparing for response measures, as Russia suspected that Georgia was getting ready for attacking South Ossetia.

“He [Medvedev] clearly stated that Russia was preparing for the war,” Grigol Vashadze said at a news conference on December 25, which was convened in connection to the Medvedev’s remarks.

“This is a significant fact,” he continued. “So many evidence have emerged after the August war that Russia has in fact decided not to wait for the work of the international commission [reference to EU-funded inquiry into the war] and already started changing its position.”

“The Russian President’s plea of guilty  is a cornerstone on which the international inquiry will build its work and which will show to the world who is an aggressor, who intruded on the Georgian territory, who bombed mercilessly our towns, who killed civilians – both Georgians and Ossetians and who is now continuing occupation [of the Georgian territories].”

“After these remarks – when [President Medvedev said]: we have been preparing for the war – it becomes even more interesting what the results of international inquiry will be. Georgia will be fully open for cooperation with the international commission and we are giving them access to all the documents,” the Georgian Foreign Minister said.

He also said that the Russian President’s remarks confirmed that Russia was the state, which “is planning military interventions into the neighboring countries’ sovereign territories; this is the state, which was planning for the military intervention into Georgia and this is the state which disregards international law.”

Vashadze also denied Russia’s allegations that Georgia was preparing for the war by saying that “almost all the cabinet members were on the vacation” at the time of the war’s start and President Saakashvili was planning to depart to Beijing to attend the opening of the Olympic Games on August 7.

President Medvedev also said on December 24 that he started to suspect that President Saakashvili was planning “forceful actions” after he “walked out from communication” with the Russian authorities.

“This is total lie,” Vashadze said, adding that the Georgian side was permanently trying to arrange talks with Russia as it had been trying to defuse escalating tensions.

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