Ex-diplomat blames Georgia for war
Its former ambassador to Russia says Georgia misread U.S. signals on breakaway provinces.
TBILISI, Georgia - Georgian authorities mistook messages from the U.S. administration as encouragement to use force against Georgia's breakaway provinces, an act that triggered war with Russia, a former Georgian diplomat said yesterday.
Erosi Kitsmarishvili, who was ambassador to Moscow in the months before the August war, said the Georgian government's actions had launched the conflict.
He said Georgian officials believed the United States backed the idea of sending Georgian troops to reclaim Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have been de facto independent and patrolled by Russian peacekeepers since the early 1990s.
Kitsmarishvili said Georgian officials told him President Bush gave his blessing for such a use of force when he met Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in Washington in March.
"Saakashvili's entourage has tried to form an opinion that the U.S. administration would support the use of force," Kitsmarishvili told a news conference. "In reality, it was not like that."
The former diplomat's allegations stirred debate over what or who started the five-day war - a debate Georgia said should be resolved by an international investigation.
The war strained U.S.-Russia relations, and U.S. officials have denied Russian assertions that Washington encouraged Georgia to send forces into South Ossetia province.
Yesterday, the Georgian government said Kitsmarishvili's comments were false.
Georgian leaders have said they launched the Aug. 7 attack after separatists shelled Georgian villages and Russian forces invaded from the north. Russia denies that, saying it sent troops to protect civilians and Russian peacekeepers from the Georgian onslaught.
Kitsmarishvili's comments appeared to support the Russian arguments. But he also accused Moscow of provoking the Georgian action and said "both parties share the blame."
"Saakashvili wanted that war. He has been bracing for that during the last four years. And Russia was eager to exploit it, pushing him to that using all means," Kitsmarishvili said, without elaborating.
The former diplomat said Georgian officials had hoped to regain South Ossetia within hours and did not expect Moscow to intervene.