Georgia started 2008 war with Russia: EU report.

This is hardly surprising as it was clear from the beginning that the Georgian president made the first moves but obviously failed to gauge the magnitude of Russian reaction. It would seem that the neither enclave will now be part of Georgia in the forseeable future in spite of the lack of recognition of their independence internationally--although they have been recognised by Nicaragua and Venezuela as well as Russia."Interesting the manner in which the international community was quick to recognise Kosovo even though there was never an agreement with Serbia concerning the separation. Russia was also faulted in the report. Obviously Russia went far beyond simply defending those attacked by Georgia and took the opportunity to penetrate into Georgia and deal a punishing blow to the Georgian armed forces--financed and built up by the US for the most part. The US is helping to rebuild Georgian armed forces and may build bases in Georgia in the future according to reports.

News From Antiwar.com - http://news.antiwar.com/2009/09/28/eu-report-to-conclude-georgia-started-2008-war-with-russia/print/

""""The oft-delayed European Union report on the August 2008 Russo-Georgian War is finally nearing release, according to officials, and it will conclude what a myriad of other reports in the interim have already concluded: that Georgia indeed fired the first shot.

In an effort to make the report more palatable to the eastern EU member states which have an axe to grind against Russia, the report will also accuse Russia of "exploiting" the conflict and will criticize them for distributing Russian passports to residents of the separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which declared independence after the conflict.

Georgia has officially reacted with outrage at every report regarding the war, insisting that Russia actually started it. But even former Georgian officials acknowledge that President Mikheil SaakashviliMikheil Saakashvili was "itching" to do battle over South Ossetia, and test the high-tech military which was largely destroyed in the brief conflict.

President Saakashvili has vowed to reclaim the enclaves as parts of Georgia proper, and has US support in ensuring they will never be recognized as independent republics, though in practice both have been outside Georgian control for quite some time. ""

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