Unlearned lessons. Dmitry Medvedev analyzes the events of 2008
Dmitry Medvedev (Дмитрий Медведев)
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council
We do not need a repetition of the history of 2008. We are still ready to solve problems at the negotiating table in the spirit of the UN Charter. But if our concerns become reality, we will not hesitate.
Fifteen years ago, events took place that neither we nor the whole world will ever forget. On August 7, 2008, at 23:35, Georgia unleashed a barrage of cannons, Grads, and mortars on the sleeping capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali. There were reports of strikes in hospitals and schools, mass deaths of the city's inhabitants, many of whom were citizens of the Russian Federation, and casualties among Russian peacekeepers. Not just a provocation - a war.
The goal of aggression was to return unruly South Ossetia through blood, death, and horror to the limits of a hostile state that for many years carried out unconcealed and systematic genocide of the Ossetian people. To crush and bring to their knees, to force them to give up the very idea of independence and freedom. The moment of the attack was chosen with undisguised cynicism - in the days when the whole world was watching the Olympic Games in Beijing - then a symbol of competition without hostility, equality of the worthy, honor, and justice.