If you recall, McCain got some fleeting traction this summer when Russia invaded Georgia. He was particularly fond of eviscerating Obama for a cautious early statement saying both sides should “show restraint.”

Turns out cautious Obama might not have been so far off the mark. From today’s NYT:

TBILISI, Georgia — Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.

Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.

The accounts are neither fully conclusive nor broad enough to settle the many lingering disputes over blame in a war that hardened relations between the Kremlin and the West. But they raise questions about the accuracy and honesty of Georgia’s insistence that its shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, was a precise operation.

p.s.: Hello again! Law school’s fun. But not as delightful as Slogging.

Annie Wagner is The Stranger's former film editor. She was born and raised in Capitol Hill, but has since lived in such far-flung locales as Phoenix, AZ, Charlottesville, VA, and Wedgwood. After graduating...

11 replies on “About That “Unprovoked” Invasion of Georgia…”

  4. At the time it happened, Putin claimed that U.S. “advisors” present in Georgia had deliberately encouraged this provocation, possibly with the intent of affecting the U.S. election.

  8. Good to hear from you annie, but this is very old news. Probably the first to post about it on SLOG though. The people of Georgia had their suspicions from the moment it started, and their President and other executive members of the country’s Federal level jumped in front of every camera they could to cry invasion. The BBC, Al-Jazeera English and even the CBC covered these suspicions and confirmed the presence of American advisors within days of the “invasion.” The fact that the right-wing in this country was playing it as “..the rise of Putin” etc. was an instant clue to the fact that there was much more behind the story.

    Georgians are now in the process of attempting to force the resignation of President Saakashvili and those in his cabinet involved.

    Thanks though for the mention.

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