| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In November 2011, in a dramatic departure from the original claims of the Russian troops rescuing the inhabitants of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Tbilisi's genocidal actions, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev acknowledged the real reason behind the Russian invasion of Georgia in August 2008. Speaking on 21 November, 2011 at the headquarters of Russia's 58th army of its Southern Military District located in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, Medvedev noted: "If we had faltered in [August] 2008, geopolitical arrangement would be different now and number of countries in respect of which attempts were made to artificially drag them into the North Atlantic Alliance, would have probably been there [in NATO] now."
This was no slip-up, as Medvedev continued to push this line later on the same day. When interviewed in Rostov on the same day, he further confirmed: "Today I already spoke with the army officers and I will tell it to you too that it was of course a very difficult page in our recent history, but, unfortunately, it was absolutely necessary [decision]. And the fact that Russia's actions at the time were so tough has eventually secured a situation for us, which, despite of all the difficulties, is now quieter than it was…
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