Medvedev on War with Georgia

Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, said on December 24 that Moscow knew that Tbilisi was getting ready for undertaking military actions against South Ossetia and for that reason Russia was also in advance preparing for a response.

“We of course were assuming that not everything was OK with our neighbor’s [referring to Georgia] brains – though we did not expect it was to such degree,” Medvedev said in an interview with Russia’s three main television stations.

“Taking into consideration that they [Georgians] were preparing for that [military actions] – I has once spoken about it – at some point I felt, that our Georgian counterpart [referring to President Saakashvili] simply stopped communicating with the Russian Federation. Before that he was requesting: let’s meet, discuss, have negotiations in Sochi; but then he just walked away from communication. At that point I started to suspect that he had decided to carry out forceful action,” Medvedev said in the interview.

“So, of course, we were preparing for that,” he continued. “And I think that as a result of those preparatory measures, which were carried out [by Russia], losses of the operation were minimal. The Russian army has destroyed the Georgian military infrastructure. At the same time [the Russian army] avoided actions, which could have been of inhuman nature.”

Medvedev also said that he had to take decision to launch the military campaign against Georgia “very quickly” adding that he even had no time to consult with anyone on the matter before taking this decision.

When asked to recollect sequence of events how did he learnt about Georgia’s attack on Tskhinvali and how he was taking decisions at that time, Medvedev responded: “This picture will remain with me for ever.”

“Perhaps, these were one of the most difficult days in my life. I can even recollect timeline of events that were taking place at that time,” Medvedev said. “At about 1am Defense Minister Serdyukov phoned me and told me that according to their information, Georgia had declared war to South Ossetia. But there were no specific movements yet. I told him to watch closely developments and to regularly update me about developments there. He was calling me back once in a half an hour, informing me about developments: at what time did tanks appear, at what time did other equipment come into play on which Georgians were moving. Eventually, at some point we still had a hope that it was some kind of provocation, which would not have been accomplished.”

“But at the point when missile systems were put into operation and tanks started firing and I was informed about death of our citizens, including of our peacekeepers, I did not hesitate even for a second and gave order to return fire and to take response measures. Of course while taking this decision you have to weigh all the consequences, including irreversible nature of such orders. You can turn away before some point, but after taking decision there is no and can’t be way back. I, naturally, understood this and anyway hoped that common sense would have prevailed. Unfortunately it did not happen. The Georgian leadership unleashed full-scale bloody war with its close people. We have undertaken all the necessary measures. In overall, I think that the military campaign, which lasted for five days, demonstrated effectiveness of our response measures, strength of the Russian weapon and strength of spirit of our citizens and of our fighters. They, with only minimal losses, managed to inflict total and in fact unrecoverable damage to the Georgian military machine. Peace was restored as a result of these measures in Caucasus and what is the most important, tens of thousands of people, which were on the verge of extermination were taken under protection. So it was a very difficult day in my life, but I think that we could not have acted otherwise. And further development of events demonstrated that our decision was right.”

During the interview, Medvedev also blamed “some senior leaders of Ukraine for taking decision to supply Georgia with arms and to send there people trained in firing at the Russian servicemen.” He said that it was “a crime committed against the Russian-Ukrainian relations.”

He also said that he would take all the necessary measures to secure Russia’s interests “by all means available.”

“This is my deep conviction. First of all, [Russia will protect its interests] by international and legal tools … but, when necessary, by using an element of force,” he said. “If there is a threat to life and dignity of the Russian citizens, the Russia’s positions, of course will be extremely simple and wisely firm. We will protect interests of our citizens anywhere no matter where they are. And there is no violation of the international law in this.”

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)