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Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the European Union

Submitted on 2018-08-08 13:23:17

Comment by the Permanent Mission

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Comment by the Permanent Mission on the Declaration of 7 August 2018 by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini on behalf of the EU on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict

The above-mentioned EU Declaration leaves a strange impression – as if very recent history has been universally forgotten, providing a blank space to write it anew. Starting with its title, referring to the «conflict between Russia and Georgia», thus distorting the picture of what really happened in August 2008.

It is therefore worth reminding that on the night of 7 August 2008 Georgian military forces launched a large-scale attack on the South Ossetian capital Tskhinval, devastating the city. At the same time, they attacked Russian peacekeepers deployed in South Ossetia with Georgia’s agreement within the framework of an internationally recognised settlement mechanism. Ten Russian soldiers were killed and forty wounded. Hundreds of local civilians were massacred, thousands left homeless. Somehow, the EU saw fit not to mention this fact, focusing instead on the Georgian «thriving economy» and portraying it as a «model of democratic stability». 

In the light of direct threat to Russian citizens in South Ossetia and to avoid a genocide of the people of the Republic, the Russian Federation had no other option but to use its armed forces to enforce peace.

Meanwhile many wrongdoings of the Government of Mikheil Saakashvili, including the fact of a large-scale military aggression against peaceful South Ossetia launched on 7-8 August 2008, thus breaching the agreement on a peaceful settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, as well as its own promises were later officially confirmed on a number of occasions, including in the report published in autumn 2009 by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia, chaired by Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini (Switzerland) and established by the EU Council decision. 

We are appalled by such a short and selective memory displayed by the EU and hope that the EU will refrain from ungrounded and politicised statements in the future.