Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The decision to strike Georgian troops in August 2008, when they attacked South Ossetia and Russian peacekeepers, was made only after this information was confirmed. This was stated on November 1 by the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
He noted that by that time Moscow had expected aggressive actions from Georgia, whose president was then Mikhail Saakashvili, but the outbreak of war on the opening day of the Olympic Games was a surprise. After receiving information about this, Medvedev ordered the then Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to check it.
"After some time there was another call, he (Serdyukov. - Ed. IA Regnum ) said that they were really trying to attack and even hit our peacekeepers. I had to give the order to launch a retaliatory strike, and a missile strike, on the Georgian troops," Medvedev told the RT television channel.
He recalled that after that there was a five-day war and Georgia lost relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. According to him, before the attack on South Ossetia, Saakashvili secured support from the United States.
Medvedev said that Western politicians called Russia's intervention in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict an invasion of Georgia, but in private conversations they admitted that this was not the case.
"They whispered in my ear: 'No, of course, we understand, he (Saakashvili. - Note from Regnum News Agency ) is crazy, he is sick, which means he did all this in vain. But, excuse me, we will not talk about this publicly,'" Medvedev said.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, in September 2024, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze admitted Saakashvili's guilt in unleashing the war with South Ossetia. The head of government named external forces as the customers of the conflict. He also stated that the former president's associates are again trying to unleash a war in the country.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said in October that a senior Western official had suggested to former Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili that he start a war with Russia. In response to the fact that the Georgian army would be defeated in a few days, the Western representative suggested resorting to guerrilla warfare.
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