Georgia Started Russian-Georgian War, Former Georgian Ambassador Says

TBILISI, Georgia — Before this summer's Georgia-Russia war, President Mikhail Saakashvili was itching to do battle and authorities mistook messages from the United States as encouragement to use force, Georgia's former ambassador to Russia said Wednesday.

But Russia also takes a share of the blame because it was trying to inflame Saakashvili's itch, Erosi Kitsmarishvili says.

His statements at a news conference added new intensity to a growing debate about what and who bear the onus for staring the five-day war that saw Russia drive deep into Georgian territory, caused devastating damage to Georgia's military, and aggravated already troubled Russia-US relations.

Georgia launched a massive artillery barrage Aug. 7 on the capital of the separatist region of South Ossetia, which was backed by Moscow and patrolled by Russian peacekeeping forces. Russian forces poured into the region, drove Georgian forces out and went on to take control of substantial swaths of northern and western Georgia.

The war ended with Russian forces firmly in control of South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia. Moscow has recognized both regions as independent.

Georgian leaders have said they launched the Aug. 7 attack after separatists shelled Georgian villages and Russian forces invaded from the north. Russia denies that, saying it sent troops to protect civilians and Russian peacekeepers from the Georgian onslaught.

Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, in Wednesday testimony to a parliamentary commission investigating the war, presented what he said were telephone recordings supporting the Georgian authorities _ one in which men said to be South Ossetian border guards say Russian forces had crossed the border the night before the barrage and another purporting to show the South Ossetian interior minister receiving an order to raze a village under Georgian control.

But according to Kistmarishvili, "Saakashvili wanted that war, he has been bracing for that during the last four years. And Russia was eager to exploit it, pushing him to that using all means."

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In the early postwar period, Georgian public opinion was strongly behind Saakashvili and a large majority believed Georgia had reacted to Russian aggression in launching the attack on South Ossetia.

In recent weeks, opposition politicians have been increasingly critical of the president and the war, but Kitsmarishvili appears to be the most highly placed official of the prewar period to publicly challenge Saakashvili on the conflict.

The former diplomat said Georgian officials had hoped to regain South Ossetia within hours, and did not expect Moscow to intervene.

He said Georgian officials believed the United States backed the idea of sending Georgian troops to reclaim Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have been de-facto independent and patrolled by Russian peacekeepers since the early 1990s.

Kitsmarishvili said Georgian officials told him President George W. Bush gave his blessing for such a use of force when he met the Georgian president in Washington in March.

"Saakashvili's entourage has tried to form an opinion that the U.S. administration would support the use of force," Kitsmarishvili said. "In reality, it was not like that."

Georgian officials also perceived a July 9-10 visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as encouragement for the plan, Kitsmarishvili said. He said people in Saakashvili's circle told him that Rice "gave the green light."

Rice has denied that Washington encouraged Georgia to use force on the provinces. The U.S. Embassy reiterated that line on Wednesday.

Kitsmarishvili made similar allegations to a Georgian parliamentary panel Tuesday, angering pro-government lawmakers who accused him of siding with Moscow and called for a criminal investigation against him. Some pro-government lawmakers accused him of lying in order to deflect attention from his alleged ineffectualness as ambassador.

Georgia recalled Kitsmarishvili from the Georgian Embassy on July 10, about a month before the war broke out. In the intervening weeks, he met in Georgia with an array of Western and Russian politicians and diplomats.

The countries have since severed diplomatic ties.

___

Associated Press Writer Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili contributed to this report.

Comments

[Rog49Thomas]

A very good rule in foreign policy is to avoid alliances with nutjobs.

Another one is to make sure that one picks mature rational leaders for the highest positions in one's own country.

Breaking one of these rules can lead to unhappy results.

Breaking both can result in unmitigated disasters.

[btanner]

Where was Milli Vanilli in all of this?

[QueenOfViolets]

The Republicans have been pushing this narrative where Russia replaces the former Soviet Union and the Ukraine and Georgia replace America in a new Cold War.

There's a problem with that narrative: Georgia and the Ukraine were part of the Soviet Union too.

Stalin's real name was Iosip Djugashvili and he was from Georgia.

Nikita Khrushchev, the loyal henchman of Stalin's who replaced him after the war, the one who sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, hailed from the Ukraine.

I think it's helpful to remember that the next time the conservatives try to blur the lines between Russia and the USSR.

It's foolish to assume that just because Georgians and Ukrainians are opposed to Putin, they present no security threat to our country (or to Russia) at all.

If they're trying to get us into a war with Russia that serves their own national interests, then they're the real threat, not Putin.

[MagisterLudi]

"The Republicans have been pushing this narrative"
OK, and now for what passes for liberal narrative in U.S. :

Brzezinski,foreign adviser to the current Savior- elect. Post as a main feature by this so called liberal website and kept on for month on end. Mr. Gardel s, a noted so-called liberal assisted on the hat c het job :

Headline "Brzezinski: Russia's Invasion of Georgia Is Reminiscent of St al in's Att a c k on Finland"
Nathan Gardels: What is the world to make of Russia's invasion of Georgia?
Mr. Brzezinski­:"...Unfor­tunately, Putin is putting Russia on a course that is ominously similar to S t a l i n's and H i t ler's in the late 1930s."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-gardels/brzezinski-russias-invasi_b_118029.html

[Lira]

The most interesting thing here is the reaction to former ambassador Erosi Kitsmarishvili himself. The chairman of the commission where he testified, Paata Davitaia, accused him of “professional negligence,” and he’s being denounced by many Georgian politicians. These denunciations are not coming only from Saakashvili’s party; the commission itself is advertised as bipartisan.

More Kitsmarishvili comment on planning for the war: "This was known in Russia and certain forces in Russia were pushing Saakashvili towards this action."

Note that Kitsmarishvili says certain Georgian government officials told him they’d received a green light from U.S. officials, but he himself is skeptical of that claim, and says all U.S. government officials he’s spoken with have denied giving any encouragement. He was not present at the meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

There's an open question regarding how much Saakashvili may have mistaken various signals, such as John McCain's extravagent friendship, for official encouragement from the U.S.

Read more at our South Ossetia News Roundup at: truthforossetia.org

[exit116]

Russia baited Georgia into that war, Russia had been flying jets over Georgian airspace and piling troops at the border for months preceding the invasion. Saakashvili was dumb enough to fall into the trap because he thought the US would come to his rescue. That wasn't going to happen no matter what, sorry Mikky.

[TXFF5000]

exit116,

You are correct the Russian leadership SET-UP Georgia.

S. Ossetia was infested with former Russian KGB people stirring up the S. Ossetians against Georgia and also the people of Abkhazia (Georgians have been ethnically cleansed out of these areas).

Pro-Russian S. Ossetians were shooting at Georgians (before Georgia attacked) and the Georgians couldn't take it any longer and got carried away shooting furiously at the S. Ossetians who were among Russian "peacekeepers". That just made the Russians' day since they had their excuse to pounce on Georgia.

If Russia merely "reacted" to "Georgia's provocation" how did they have a HUGE land, sea and air force ready to invade Georgia that took MONTHS to organize?

Also WHY did Russia also invade/annex Abkazia ALSO when there were NO Georgian provocations there against Russian "peacekeepers"?

People have to realize that Putin-Medvedev are like Cheney-Bush. They are the Neo-Cons of Russia and just because Bush is an A-hole it doesn't automatically make the Russians angels.


http://www.theotherrussia.org/2008/11/23/new-documentary-chronicles-the-struggle-of-the-russian-opposition/

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08122008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/russia_goes_rogue_124032.htm

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/the_end_of_the_fairy_tale.html


http://www.nypost.com/seven/08302008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/putins_pick_for_us_prez_126709.htm

http://www.theotherrussia.org

[Danny]

This news doesn't surprise me.

Are Condaleeza Rice and Susan Rice related?

[ctznjoe]

No they are not. Susan Rice is the likely pick for UN amb. in the Obama administration.

[Buzz-Cuz]

I knew that the Georgian president was telling lies, every time he showed his face on the tube.
He tryed to influence the 2008 presidential election, in the favor of John McBush. It was so apparent.
As a matter of fact, I began to call the Georgian president," Svengahli .... He was a ball of energy with his hourly updates, pleadings , and lies ........
Old John McBush, proclaimed, " WE all are Georgians "....... Even Cindy , ( Barbi Doll ) McBush got into the act by inserting herself into the thick of the ruse, by going to the Georgian nation,...­... I guess she thought she was the First Lady, or presumptive first lady.
Just another reason the American people rejected the failed, grandstanding, clueless John McBush / Sarah Palin ticket....­...

[hotstuff]

georgia and mccains lobbyist trying to steal the american election for Mccain! Told ya back then this was happening!

[zitlight73]

Not unlike Poppy telling the Kurds to rise up against Saddem Hussein and then just let the get mowed down like weeds. There were also reports of Blackwater mercenaries also in the mix.

[MakeAWish]

More BS manipulation and propaganda by our government. At this point, I wouldn't believe anything they have to say. "The old, "sky is falling, the sky is falling", doesn't work any more. They have lost every crumb of credibility.

[goldiekins]

It always seemed fishy to me and too convenient to McCain's campaign. We are all Georgians. Right!

[hotstuff]

Told you So! Something fishy, and connected to the RNC/Mccain/Bush administration on this!

[SydneyS]

(PART ONE)

President Obama, once in office, should form a special committee to launch an investigation into the McCain and RNC involvement in this matter.

Long before this happened, the Kosovo independent had stirred up tensions between Moscow, Washington and Tbilisi. Add to that America’s plan to install long-range missiles in Poland, and you get nothing but a deep insult to the very heart of every patriotic Russian.

Shakashvili, who receives must of his marching orders from Washington, had strongly supported the Kosovo’s plan for independence, knowing well that Moscow strongly had rejected such a declaration. His rhetoric was that Kosovo’s independence was a democracy in action, yet declared independence in Abkhazia, and the North Osseia-Alania, aka South Ossetia, must of whom hold Russian passports, was a Russian ploy to destroy the fragile Georgia.

As this US-Russian chess-game went on across the Atlantic, an intensive Presidential campaign was taking shape in America. A lame duck President and a depressed economy were destroying McCain’s last chance to run for President. His opponents’ well-managed camping was resonating more and more with the voters that America needed to change from within. Something was needed to divert attention away from what truly mattered to the voters. That “something” had to illustrate McCain’s self-proclaimed foreign policy experiences, never mind if the opposite was true.

[SydneyS]

(PART TWO)

A global crisis and the reintroduction of “fear” would have been what that “something” could have been about. It is “that something” that took Carl Rove, along with Rice, Gates, and Dick Cheney to Tbilisi.

We might never know what really happened, as the administration will bury the truth deep within classified information, never to be seen again. But we do know that innocent people have died, and we also know that Washington was deeply involved. As far as Rove’s involvement, however, since private citizens are forbidden by federal statute from negotiating US Foreign Policies, a grand jury needs to be formed to file formal indictment against him, forcing him to talk. With him talking, we might open some windows to the possibilities of some sort of truth coming out, far beyond our wildest imaginations.

[mcantwell]

I believe Obama initially stated that both sides should show restraint, and McCain criticised him for it. In retrospect, Obama was correct.

[JackND]

Such a collection of people, none of whom I'm inclined to believe.

I suppose someone has to be right.