Source:
New York TimesMOSCOW — After a lengthy inquiry, investigators commissioned by the European Union are expected to conclude that
Georgia triggered last year’s war with Russia by attacking separatists in South Ossetia, rejecting Tbilisi’s explanation that the attack was defensive, according to an official familiar with the commission’s work.
But the official said the report is expected to balance this conclusion with an equally weighty one:
If Georgia fired the first shot, Russia created and exploited the conditions that led to war. For years running up to the conflict, Russia encouraged separatist movements in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, distributed Russian passports in the enclaves and beefed up its military capability.Investigators have closely guarded the report’s contents, which will be presented to the European Union’s Council of Ministers at noon on Wednesday and then released to the public. A spokesman for the mission refused to discuss any of its contents before the Wednesday release.
By blaming both countries, the report seems unlikely to resolve the debate over which bears more overall responsibility. Most countries have already taken a firm position on the enclaves, which only Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela have recognized as sovereign nations. Europe and the United States have uniformly criticized the Kremlin for changing Georgia’s borders by force, and for violating the “six-point agreement,” a French-brokered ceasefire that required Russia to withdraw its troops to pre-war positions.
Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/world/europe/29georgia.html?hp
Release is scheduled for Wednesday. It should be an interesting read.
When Russia passes Russian passports to residents in other countries, are they given to ethnic Russians who grew up in these other countries when they were part of the Soviet Union?