THEO VAN GOGH WATCH : MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10136
Russia’s Deputy Security Council Chief And Former President Dmitry Medvedev: The 2008 War With Georgia And The Current Conflict In Ukraine Were Both Part Of A Western Master Plan To Destabilize Russia Via Its Neighbors
August 7, was the anniversary of the five-day Russo-Georgian War of 2008. Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president at that time, and the man who gave the order to fight Georgia was interviewed by TASS
on the anniversary. Medvedev, who has been using the war in Ukraine to reinvent himself as a super hawk, who proclaims his hatred for Western bastards used the interview to tie the two wars together as part of a Western master plan to destabilize Russia. The only difference that Medvedev would admit to was that Europe’s role was more positive back in 2008. Medvedev was certain that Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky would suffer the same fate as Georgia’s Mikheil Saakashvili.
Western accounts of the connection between the 2008 war and the current war in Ukraine are understandably different and argue that Western acquiescence to Russia’s manhandling of Georgia encouraged Putin to seek further gains, most notably in Ukraine.
Mark Galeotti, Honorary Professor at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies claims: “No one was willing to go to war for Georgia…This was a time in which no one really wanted to provoke Russia. [Dmitry] Medvedev was president, and particularly American policy was to essentially hope that this could be leveraged into something more positive. So…to a large extent, Georgia was left on its own.”
Or take this passage from the Atlantic Council’s Peter Dickinson on the August 2021 anniversary of the conflict:
“The international reaction to Russia’s military campaign in Georgia was to prove remarkably muted, with Moscow suffering few negative consequences. On the contrary, EU leaders led calls for a ceasefire that appeared to favor Russian interests, while the US under the new Obama administration was soon calling for a reset in relations with the Kremlin.
Understandably, many in Moscow interpreted this accommodating approach as an informal invitation for further acts of aggression in Russia’s traditional sphere of influence. Six years after the Russo-Georgian War, Russia embarked on a far more comprehensive military campaign against Ukraine, where Moscow continues to occupy Crimea and large swathes of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.”
The interview with Medvedev follows below:
Medvedev in 2008 television appearance promises to defend the Russian citizens of South Ossetia (Zavtra.ru)
“Exactly 14 years ago, Georgian troops attacked South Ossetia and Russian peacekeepers stationed in the region, after which Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced an operation to coerce peace on Georgia. The result was the military defeat of the Mikheil Saakashvili regime and Russian recognition for the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. On the anniversary of the 2008 events, Medvedev, now serving as the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, commented on TASS’ questions regarding the Western role in this story and the connections between the Georgian and Ukrainian conflicts, on attitudes towards the decisions adopted then, and on whether Georgia might try to take revenge.”