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by Diana Kulchitskaya
The war that broke this summer in the Caucasus began when the tension between South Ossetia and Georgia increased. Tbilisi and Tskhinvali exchanged fierce announcements and fire. In August, a serious armed fight started in the region.
The Georgian president declared a ceasefire, but on August 8th, Georgian troops started a massive attack on the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, and then stormed the city. Several interpretations were surmised about how this occurred. Initially, the Georgian authorities confirmed that their arms were the first to light the sky in the breakaway province. However, several days after that, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili denied this information and said that Russia had started the bombings.
After assessing the situation, the commander of the peacekeeping forces, which were deployed in the region under the Dagomys Accord, announced the beginning of the war.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a statement during the meeting with the Kazakhstan head of state, saying the Georgian actions would provoke a military response from Russia. On the same day, Russia sent troops to the region.
The deployment of Russian tanks also created total chaos in the media. Some of the Western TV channels gave information declaring that Russian soldiers had occupied the Georgian town of Gori and were moving to the capital. Later, officials admitted that this was not the case and that Tbilisi was out of danger.
Meanwhile, the leader of Abkhazia, Sergei Bagapsh, declared a state of war with Georgia and started an attack on the Georgian soldiers in the Kodor gorge, which is in the Abkhazian territory. By Monday, August 11th, Russian soldiers had already seized control of Tskhinvali, which was previously occupied by Georgian troops. Then, they moved further into the country without fighting.
The war was assumed to be over by Tuesday, when Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said that "the operation to force the Gregorian side to peace" was over and Russia had achieved its military aims. On that day, the French head of state Nicolas Sarkozy came to Moscow as a mediator in the conflict and discussed points in the peace treaty. Then the French president went to the Caucuses, where Mikhail Saakashvili signed the settlement with the six principles, which were supposed to resolve the conflict in the region.
After the truce was formalized, sparks still flew between Moscow and Tbilisi and not only metaphorically. Despite the declared ceasefire, there were fights. The withdrawal of Russian troops seemed to be delayed. August 14th is considered to be the actual last day of the armed conflict, although at that time there were still some Russian soldiers in the territory of Georgia.
The war on the diplomatic battlefield was just about to begin. Two weeks later, Georgia broke its diplomatic ties with Russia and recalled its embassy staff. This action was a response to Russia's recognition of the breakaway provinces.