Georgia picked up remarks by Russian deputy commander of airborne troops, Man. Gen. Vyacheslav Borisov, to back up its version of events leading up to the August war, Civil Georgia reported.
Maj. Gen. Borisov was in charge of the Russian troops on the ground in South Ossetia during the August war and some time after the war.
He said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station on June 6, while speaking in general about importance of training and use of past experience of the armed forces in nowadays, Maj. Gen. Borisov said: "I was in command of South Ossetian and Georgian directions. As you understand, we regularly conduct exercises in those areas, our troops have received a full-scale practice, as we had conducted exercises in those very areas just one week earlier and we had just left; that is why we have carried out the march on Tskhinvali much better than those units, which were under the central and district command. For us that was not an obstacle at all."
"If anyone so far retains doubts about what really happened in August 2008, we advise to refer to the information given in the abovementioned interview," the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on June 7. "We strongly advise those, who so far has doubts about who inspired and brought into action the military aggression against Georgia last August, to refer to the abovementioned part of the interview of the Russian General."
"We are hopeful that this additional confessional statement made by yet another Russian aggressor, will aid the international commissions (community) in coming to adequate conclusions for finding the truth about the 18 year undeclared war carried out by Russia against Georgia, the last episode of which took place on August 7, 2008," the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.
Gigi Ugulava, an influential mayor of Tbilisi, said that he hoped this "accidental confession" by the Russian general would "clear minds" of those people, "mainly in the political groups," who were looking forward for EU's war inquiry mission conclusions to put a blame on the Georgian authorities for the launch of the August war.