Tbilisi - Tbilisi views Russian President Vladimir Putin's words that Russia was preparing to deter a possible aggression of Georgia as an admission of Russian violation of the CIS decisions.
“In fact, Putin admitted that all the international agreements and CIS sanctions [with regard to South Ossetia] existent at that moment were breached,” Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kapanadze told reporters.
Putin said on Wednesday that Russia deterred the Georgian attack on South Ossetia in August 2008 in accordance with a plan it had prepared in advance.
“There was a plan. I think this is not a secret that Russia acted in accordance with it,” the president said.
In his words, the Russian General Staff drafted the plan in late 2006 – early 2007. “I approved and endorsed that plan. Besides, South Ossetian volunteers were trained by that plan,” Putin said.
“Putin admitted that the Russian Armed Forces were giving regular training to such units since 2006. That was a violation of all the international agreements existent at that moment, CIS sanctions and the bilateral accord, which settled the conflict with Tskhinvali. Putin actually admitted violations of those agreements. We kept saying that through all these years. There is nothing new about that. It is just curious that the Russian president makes the confession now,” Kapanadze said.
Putin’s statement “deserves attention: there has not been such a detailed admission of a plan approved by Putin in 2006 to train criminal groups,” Georgian National Security Council Secretary Giga Bokeria said.
“An explanation of the causes is secondary although we have already heard numerous public statements of the leaders of the Russian Federation and the Kremlin about their goal and things they wanted to achieve. They have made public statements in this context before. For instance, Medvedev said they did not want NATO to enlarge,” Bokeria said.
