Читаем Putin's Wars полностью

Andrey Illarionov provided a small list of Russians in the government of South Ossetia. They included lieutenant-general Anatoly Barankevich, minister of defense from July 6, 2004, to December 10, 2006; Anatoly Yarovoy, FSB major-general, chairman of the KGB in South Ossetia from January 17, 2005, to March 2, 2006; Mikhail Mindzayev, FSB lieutenant-general, minister of the interior of South Ossetia from April 26, 2005, to August 18, 2008; Andrey Laptev, lieutenant-general, minister of defense of South Ossetia from December 11, 2006, to February 28, 2008; Aslanbek Bulatsev, FSB colonel, prime minister of South Ossetia since October 31, 2008 (Illarionov, “The Russian Leadership’s Preparation for War, 1999–2008,” 81–82).

33.

Alexander Golts, “Opyat Kavkazskaya Voyna,” Ezhednevnyy Zhurnal (August 9, 2008).

34.

Illarionov, “The Russian Leadership’s Preparation for War, 1999–2008,” 68.

35.

Mart Laar, “Echoes of the 1930s in Russia’s Sweeping Annexation,” Financial Times (April 17, 2008).

36.

“Georgia and Russia: Clashing over Abkhazia,” 4.

37.

Cf. “Kommentary Departamenta informatsii i pechati MID Rossii v svyazi s voprosami SMI otnositelno intsidenta s gruzinskim bespilotnym samoletom 20 aprelya 2008 goda” (Comment of the Information and Press Department of the Foreign Ministry of Russia concerning questions from the media on the incident with the Georgian drone on April 20, 2008). Website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

38.

Yuliya Latynina, “200 km. tankov. O rossiysko: gruzinskoy voyne” (Two Hundred Kilometres of Tanks. On the Russian-Georgian War), Ezhednevnyy Zhurnal (November 19, 2008), 7.

39.

Cf. Neil Buckley and Roman Olearchyk, “UN Says Moscow Shot Georgian Drone,” The Financial Times (May 27, 2008). The Russian attack also endangered the civil aviation. According to the UN investigators the interception “took place very close to, or even inside an international airway, at a time where civilian aircraft were flying.”

40.

Pavel Felgenhauer, “Saakashvili Wants to Get to Moscow, While Russian Troops Are in Abkhazia Already,” Novaya Gazeta (May 20, 2008). These plans for an ethnically cleansed “buffer zone” had, at that time, certainly already been discussed with Shamba’s Kremlin bosses. The plans would be executed during the August war.

41.

Felgenhauer, “Saakashvili Wants to Get to Moscow, While Russian Troops Are in Abkhazia Already.”

42.

“NATO calls on Russia to withdraw railway troops from Georgia,” International Herald Tribune (June 3, 2008).

43.

“Saakashvili Calls Security Council to Decide on Abkhazia,” Nevtegaz.ru Novosti (June 3, 2008). The journalist of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung who visited Abkhazia in June 2008 repeated, uncritically, the vocabulary used by the Russian side to justify the entry of these troops, calling them “unarmed pioneers” (unbewaffnete Pioniere), comparing this Russian army battalion of engineers and technicians with a group of idealistic boy scouts. (Cf. Hosp, “Leise Hoffnung an der Roten Riviera.”)

44.

“Tbilisi Condemns Russian ’Railway Troops’ in Abkhazia,” Civil Georgia (May 31, 2008). http://www.civil.ge/eng/_print.php?id=18445.

45.

Socor, “The Goals Behind Moscow’s Proxy Offensive in South Ossetia.”

46.

“Rossiya stoit na grani bolshoy Kavkazkoy voyny,” Forum.msk.ru (July 5, 2008). http://forum-msk.org/print.html?id=496351.

47.

“Rossiya stoit na grani bolshoy Kavkazkoy voyny.”

48.

“58-ay armiya RF gotova voyti v Tskhinvali,” Gruziya Online (August 3, 2008).http://www.apsny.ge/news/1217792861.php.

49.

“58-ay armiya RF gotova voyti v Tskhinvali.”

50.

Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia, 238.

Chapter 14

The War with Georgia, Part II

Six Events Announcing the Kremlin’s

Preparation for War

Different authors have tried to reconstruct the chain of events leading to the outbreak of war. In this chain of events there are at least six events that should be considered. They are, separately, and taken together, a clear indication of Russia’s preparations for war. These events are as follows:

A cyber war, launched by Russian servers before the outbreak of the hostilities, paralyzing Georgian government websites. This cyber war must have been prepared well in advance.