It’s only independent experts who could give an answer to a question about who is to blame to what extent, after checking the labeling of each shell and bomb. However, Tskhinvali is being cleaned as hastily as the Beslan’s school building was after the terrorist act committed there. 

The Russian citizen (who is also a TV viewer) has had an opportunity to study closely the version of the Russia-Georgia conflict about the South Ossetia, assiduously presented by the federal TV stations with the General Newsmaker Nogovitsyn. Somehow or other, he is also acquainted with the position of the insidious US, NATO and the heads of the EU. As for Georgia, it is mostly caricatured, which is part of the mutual informational-propagandist war, where Russia is only concerned with restoration of the Empire in its previous borders, while the Georgian President is only busy with chewing his own neckties.        

According to editorial board’s opinion, the material by the Novaya Gazeta observer Yuia Latynina, who has returned from a service trip in Georgia, helps understanding the outlook on this war from the Georgian side. We publish this text with minor abridgements.   

Politics section of Novaya Gazeta

Palestinazation of Caucasus has been the main outcome of the Russia-Georgia war as of the moment. This is a division of Georgia into two parts: a prosperous free state that will be integrated into Europe, NATO and the world economy soon; a Georgian Palestine represented by Abkhazia and especially by the South Ossetia, the para-states off the Russian peace-makers’ payroll, where the idea of responsibility by the government to citizens is substituted with an ideology of the national hatred. 

I say “Russia-Georgia war”, as it would be ridiculous calling what has happened there using any other word. Russia has thrown over 20,000 soldiers and hundreds tanks into the battle. Georgia has been bombed with at least one strategic bomber. The newest weapon systems have been rather tested than used on a large scale in this war. The blows were made with the forces of the two fronts. The outcome was provided with artillery and aviation that has worked on the area basis. So the troops practically did not get in direct fire contact. It would be ridiculous saying this war has been going on for the South Ossetia.   

Has Mikhail Saakashvili taken some good strategic decisions in this war? That’s doubtful. The Georgian President began the war after 150 units of the Russian heavy materiel had passed the Rokskiy Tunnel and the artillery had begun sweeping away the Georgian settlements, situated in a gorge of Bolshoe Liakhve, shooting from Tskhinvali and Java. At that moment Saakashvili could not take any strategic decisions. He only could take a tactic one about the site for the first battle: near Tskhinvali on the night of 8 August or near Gori on the night of 9 August.  

Saakashvili sent his troops towards the Russian troops, and the total military defeat of the Kokoity regime was one of few positive consequences of that decision for Georgia. That did not allow the Kremlin pretending that it’s “South Ossetian home guard” fighting and not the 58th Russian Army.    

The first and most actual question in this war: what has it been? The answer is that it has been a war by aviation and artillery. Georgian troops have bombed Guptinsky Bridge and Transkam where many new Russian military columns had been passing through the Rokskiy Tunnel. The Russian artillery and aviation shot at all places where there were Georgians including the occupied by them Tskhinvali and Gori. When it became clear that in case Georgians did not retreat Tbilisi would come under danger of being shot at, then Georgians had to retreat. 

Another most important question in this war: who ruined Tskhinvali? Russia affirms that was done by Georgian troops on 8 August night, while Georgians say it was done by the Russian aviation and artillery when they dislodged Georgians from Tskhinvali. Georgians also affirm their MLRS’s have shot only at the separatist positions outside Tskhinvali. That cannot be true, as the artillery fire systems used by the both sides are no high precise modern weapons.  

It’s only independent experts that could establish the degree of guilt by each side, through thorough checking of the labeling of each shell and bomb. However, Tskhinvali at the moment is being cleaned as hastily as it was done about the Beslan’s school building after the terrorist act. It is unlikely that the South Ossetian authorities allow international experts in. The only thing remaining is to wait the video shots of Tskhinvali made at the moment Georgian troops entered there and at the moment they were dislodged.     

The third most important question of this war: who has practiced genocide? The Russian TV stations state that the Georgians were dislodged from Tskhinvali on Friday, after which those sadists continued to run about the city and throw pregnant women and children under the tanks! Georgians affirm that their settlements in the South Ossetia and near Gori were swept away as a result of bombing, marauding and ethnic cleansing. <…>

In this case Human Rights Watch has registered no facts of brutality by the Georgian troops – let us assume they have not had time yet. As for using marauders in the Central Georgia in a form of people’s volunteer corps, agitated for by Ossetian separatists, that has been an unexpected strategic decision, to put it mildly.  

It should be noted that there has been no military sense of using the home guard in the war conducted by aviation and artillery. So the brigandage in the settlements near Gori intended only a political purpose of turning the ethnic hatred into an instrument of perpetration of one’s own power.   

With all the likeness, the two fronts of this war differ significantly. There is no cleansing in the Western Georgia. In the Galskiy district of Abkhazia, where Georgians live, there has been no occasion where “indignant locals” would slaughter Georgian dwellers, being in a fit of the righteous anger. On the contrary, the Ossetian home guards are doing in the Georgian villages between Gori and Tskhinvali the things similar to those done by “Mkhedrioni” in Abkhazia in 1992.

Seemingly, the difference between what is happening in the western Georgia and in the Central Georgia is caused with the difference between Abkhazian and South Ossetian regimes. This difference is like the one between terrorist accomplice and hostage.  

This war can be called unique to some extent. All the shortcomings of the Russian Army have been turned into advantages. It turned out that the 58th Army does not possess enough force to dislodge much less numerous Georgians forces only with the use of tank-borne infantry and tanks. Well, that does not matter, as we can dislodge Georgians with aviation and then say it’s only them to have bombed Tskhinvali. It turned out that the Russian army is shoeless and not dressed well. The dead bodies of the Georgian soldiers in Tskhinvali streets were unshoed, and a toilet bowl was stolen from a military base in Gori. That does not matter either, as Saakashvili has had to consider that the Army without shoes, and the home guard without shoes, which is even worse, entering Tbilisi, would be much more terrible than any Army in shoes.      

Actually, same way the Russian state is made. In a normal state, when an official runs over a pedestrian or steals money, that is considered to be an abnormality. As for our state, the entire state machine makes a stand for such an official. I mean, what is considered to be a crime in a normal state, is just a way of governing with us. This way is rather perfect and it may continue rather long – till the oil is over.   

Obviously, the state governed the way above, must feel absolute class hatred towards Georgia.