Georgian authorities mistook messages from the U.S. administration as encouragement to use force against Georgia’s breakaway provinces an action that triggered war with Russia, a former Georgian diplomat said Wednesday.
Erosi Kitsmarishvili, who was ambassador to Moscow in the months before the August war, said the Georgian government’s actions were to blame for the conflict.
Kitsmarishvili’s allegations stirred the debate over what or who started the five-day war a debate Georgia said should be resolved by an international investigation.
The war put strain on U.S.-Russia relations, and U.S. officials have denied Russian allegations that Washington encouraged Georgia to launch an attack on South Ossetia province.
Georgian leaders have said they launched the Aug. 7 attack after separatists shelled Georgian villages and Russian forces invaded from the north. Russia denies that, saying it sent troops to protect civilians and Russian peacekeepers from the Georgian onslaught.
Kitsmarishvili’s comments Wednesday appeared to support the Russian arguments.
He said Georgian officials believed the United States backed the idea of Georgian troops moving to reclaim Abkhazia and South Ossetia provinces, which have been de facto independent and patrolled by Russian peacekeepers since the early 1990s.