well. of stories markets are plunging worldwide in the wake of the weakening u.s. economy. it's the worst since two thousand and eight some experts are predicting a new wave of global recession. president warns the syrian leader his fate might take a grim turn if the fails to carry out reforms this comes as the siege of an opposition held city continues more protests are expected after friday prayers. and

a group of hardline muslims is trying to enforce. law in london critics say that provocative campaign could lead to further cultural divisions. and on the eve of the third anniversary of the war in south ossetia the president spoke to t.v. . radio and t.v. channel pick he spoke about the tough decisions he had to make an orchestra thousand and eight and how he sees the consequences of war is coming your way right now. expensive russia mr president thank you very much for agreeing to answer our questions but let us go back to the events of two thousand and eight back then you met with the georgian president mikheil saakashvili your meeting took place in st petersburg and there was an impression at that point both in tbilisi and in moscow that we had arrived at some sort of an accord and the dispute would not be allowed to boil over into an armed conflict and i reiterate that this feelings present both in moscow and. he told us that he managed to agree on anything with

the georgian president back then. the question you know catherine i had the same impression at the time but i can still recall meeting president saakashvili for the first time i was in some petersburg we met in the constantine palace and mr secretary arrived i told him literally little did you know there are many problems in the region at the moment georgia is it also we have these unrecognized states but i can assure you that as a newly elected president of russia i shall do everything in my capacity to help you find some compromise solutions that would accommodate everyone and would eventually facilitate a reintegration of georgian territory that's acceptable for all the parties in a cage and they go see a ship naturally go this is what i told it word for word and his response was sort of course we are ready to cooperate and i also have this impression that we could at least try to find some creative solutions if not a new chaplain time but first of all there was an opportunity to meet on

a regular basis which i can tell you earnestly i spent the next month checking regularly for any feedback from our daughter counterpart and there was nothing but at the same time georgia was getting more and more visits from envoys from across the ocean but as they would be double speak ships the moment of truth for me as i realized later while analyzing those events in hindsight over and over again came with a visit by u.s. secretary of state congolese of rice still thank following that visit my georgian colleague simply. all communication with us he simply stopped talking to us he stopped writing letters and making phone calls it was apparent that he had some new plans now and those plans were implemented later. mr president am i correct in assuming that the way you see it visit by the u.s. secretary of state was meant to urge president saakashvili. to think the united states was deliberately encouraging georgia to pursue a conflict with almost no i don't think so the united states is a very large country headed by pragmatic people but in politics connotations

a nuance is a very important as it is i don't believe the americans had heard georgia's president to invade but i do believe that there were certain subtleties and certain hints made statements like it's time to restore constitutional order or it's time to be more assertive which could effectively feed saakashvili apparent hopes that the americans would back him in any conflict that they would stand up for georgia and even go to war with russia and therefore i do see a relation between ms rice's visit to georgia and the events that followed just as i see a link in my further discussions with the u.s. president our phone conversation and then also some meetings at that. so there was no green light from the white house this is a phrase they often repeat when analyzing the war of two thousand and eight it must have been greenlighted by washington or when i would have to at least have some official information or intelligence reports to be able to make such

a statement i don't have them but we can make an analysis of why jordan counterpart ceased all communication with us following the visit by conda lisa rice maybe that was just a coincidence but i'm almost absolutely sure of that was when they came up with a plan for the military gamble which ensured in august two thousand and eight all this in any case mr president war represents a failure of diplomacy and looking back at the situation three years later what would you have done in a different way what is it that russia fails to do. event it will always fall on them i can tell you frankly as i realized back in july two thousand and eight that mr saakashvili was nurturing such plans in his inflamed heart and maybe i would have addressed him in an even tougher way and i would have tried to drag him out of his environment at home get him to come to russia some third country in order to talk to him simply talk him out of this but of course i had no idea so when it all happened even though we had been aware that there were plans in georgia to restore

their territorial integrity through the use of force i still thought it was a paranoid scenario it would never become reality you always keep hoping that common sense will prevail over this kind of rationale that is why i was surprised by what happened on august the eighth and i've explained it many times i realize that by unleashing this war suckers fully who personally devoted his country to destruction and that is the scariest part both for him and for the georgian people . russian forces reached p.c. police i believe that the peace enforcement operation which took five days was a mission accomplished our mission was not to capture tbilisi or any other city in georgia our only objective was to halt the invasion that sucker's really had unleashed sides i'm neither a judge nor an executioner i'd like to stress once again that it's up to the people of georgia to assess saakashvili and decide his fate through

a democratic vote well maybe they could also use other means the way it sometimes happens in history but the posing successfully by force was not on my agenda back then and i can tell you earnestly i still think it was the right decision even though it would have been a piece of cake. well look one more question in here oh but they still believe that while the russians initial response was legitimate self-defense the further actions of the russian troops were excessive why wasn't this an option to push the georgian forces out of the set and stop i practically have to change. course i said. you know sophie people are free to make speculations like that on there was one i have come across the many times to try putting yourself in the shoes of russia's commander in chief my shoes that i'm sure sure we could have merely forced them out and stop there but we'll be hearing from georgia with that we shall fall back to our initial position and our american friends and that allies will call it was

a rearm get on your aircraft and whatnot and then with your resume the same offensive with renewed vigor the world was letting them think that it would have been a crime against the memory of those who died protecting their land and therefore our mission at the time was to destroy georgia's with machine so the legion wouldn't be able to target civilians i said. on the russian federation because as you know what it's all mixed they're good for those that want to let it go that i'm going to treat them as. surprised as you were referring to the peace and foursomes operation and i keep thinking back to today libya and syria when do you consider it acceptable to start a war what's your rationale for deciding whether it's ok to launch a piece of equipment you she's got that there is russia billion to gadhafi in libya and here it is imposing sanctions against syria how do you did your decisions on georgia batman and russia's stance on today's prices. you see alexey it's always case by case there are no identical countries and there are no identical solutions

i guess it's clear to you what is going on in libya sort of as a man who has been running the country for forty years and at some point he decided to use force against his own people but will also do as was condemned by the entire international community including russia which is when. taking any part in the military campaign reza few nations are attempting to instill order around go through military means we don't think it's the right thing to do but there is one nuance you should keep in mind georgia had been split into three parts by the time of the with what should have been about pulling the country back together for them with rather than merely restoring constitutional order i don't read libya is still in one piece such a risk does exist for libya but so far all of the parties in the conflict look like landing the so-called rebels in the program daffy forces have pledged that to preserve their country's territorial integrity so the situations are quite different however i'm not saying this to explain how we make decisions or so i'm

merely trying to demonstrate that all of these situations and scenarios are totally diverse this goes for other countries as well some i guess i see it on syria and i should syria syria is a more complex issue but sadly their situation has been unfolding in a very dramatic way so far so much all of us practical politician should keep a close watch on the developments in that country but daffy for one had issued unequivocal orders to slaughter opposition activists by contrast syria's president never ordered anything like that unfortunately people are dying in syria in grave numbers another round is our deepest concern that therefore in my discussions with president assad during our personal conversations and in our correspondence i've been advocating one principle idea that he should immediately known for reforms reconcile with the opposition restore civil and who would start developing a modern state should he fail to do that he's in for

a grim faced with and we will eventually have to take some decisions on syria to actually we've been watching developments very attentively with the situation is changing and so were our objectives. on the menu yes that's that's the guts of this is a look at some of the numbers in the wake of the word two thousand and eight russian envoy said the representatives of south us that is de facto government argued that the fighting in simi valley that's claimed two thousand lives that was the number that was a noun that later on russia's investigative committee estimates of the casualties it no more than one hundred fifty people i think i mean while it was this alleged toll of two thousand that and certainly the main reasons for not seeing this so-called peace important operation how do you account for this discrepancy now three years after the initial yeah let's go look at that really more of a history making it so for me i have explained my rationale for taking it as a decision all of literacy occasions you see i didn't go at any figures for location this isn't exactly

a place for mathematics and more was let me remind you what was going on away on the night between august the seventh and the eighth i received a phone call from the defense minister i was on vacation at the time sailing down the volga river and the whole world was looking forward to the olympics that were about to take off in china so i sealed my minister told me that georgia had launched a full scale combative ration and the honest my initial reaction was completely down i told the minister we should check if this is really completely out of his mind to provoke us or maybe it's just a provocative act and maybe he stress test of your seconds in trying to send us some kind of message and i will later you minister reported to me this is no bluff they've only got an elaborate artillery barrage which i'm now using grad rocket launchers and whatnot i said all right i'll wait for another update. some more try to pass the minister called again i have something to tell you i believe they've just leveled the tent full of our peacekeepers killing every one of them what was i

supposed to do i said return fire and shoot to kill no figures have been announced at that point unfortunately such situations are always about instant situation report so please. and persistence and difficulty them as to which unfortunately i can tell you that was the hardest night of my life. casualty i started started coming in later and i just like they did divergent then they still do i'm not a detective nor a forensic expert i don't perform explanations or certain friends and colleagues tell us that many bodies were buried back at it and remain missing from history and what the later meanwhile jordan analysts present different estimates was that you know we can't use this kind of logic two thousand miles is serious enough for the one hundred fifty doesn't even know if i was casual look essentially the look up. mr president you said you gave the order to return fire that are the operation continued after that had weapons rolled in and the conflict down due to an all out

war tell us about how you made the decision to continue the operation and so not a question that all our colleagues would like answered who called whom first did you call prime minister putin in beijing first or did he call you did you and the prime minister called you need to move. can we just went with it so the first time i contacted him that's conflict still was about twenty four hours after it had broken and someone who was involved was already ablaze what it was to putin just made a statement condemning tbilisi's move that was the right thing to do of course but as we spoke twenty four hours after the attack over a six year old boy was i to understand it's not very appropriate to discuss matters like this by south korea something is that it's also a lot of trouble to establish a secure line with someone who's in a different country that we taught you surely we're going to talk you know a little so he came back but even before his return i called a meeting of the security council with the explained my position my decision to return fire and engage in a conflict with the security council members voiced their support for my decision sometime later we had the meeting in sochi which mr putin attended where this is

your favorite so in relation to this we have to mention mr sarkozy who was at the time chairman of the european union i don't know what it is all i can talk about him without a smile unlike the other president we discussed today because i like a letter yes. i see according to some it was sarkozy who persuaded you to pull the russian forces march towards. in this country of course not with no head of state is capable of talking another head of state into anything but look at the world trying to talk it down for giving up have they persuaded him to do anything you know and i don't think they will but surely he would sooner die in his bunker really let me stress this again taking cities was never our goal our goal was to stop the war machine which was at that time aimed at two breakaway territories and regrettably at our citizens what he did was very kind i called me and said i heard there was a conflict do you want me to fly over to moscow i said i would be happy to see him

which then he told me i'm currently chairing the e.u. i could come over to discuss the incident he's very good at this sort of thing and he loves doing it he came to moscow and we talked i explained my position to him what he told me i understand and i agree. some things i will be able to say in public or some i won't but regardless of that i want to have a part in stopping this conflict i told him all right so let's put a plan together that plan was later called to make the end of the ceasefire. i told him he could take a plan to georgia the best thing about what he did was probably that he had the courage to come to russia at a time when literally everyone was talking about what he had done he was brave enough to go on to georgia with our initiatives and he garnered a satisfactory reaction from the georgian authorities. president secretary first and foremost that's that was his contribution to the diplomatic corps that helped solve the conflict because this wasn't in the west it's

a belief that recognizing our president's office says yes it is not in accordance with the spirit of the peace treaty we need that sarkozy plan which at the end of the war called for the return of the armed forces to the prewar positions by russia though recognized the sovereignty of this republic and kept its armed forces in the region right now there are russian three bases in africa south ossetia how did sarkozy the coauthor of the plan react to this sort of well i can say that i never discussed the matter with him but he did not come to moscow to discuss you happy he was never involved in the letter of course i can tell you that he knew several other e.u. representatives disapproved of the decision but they told us we were creating problems for ourselves i heard them but pleasing our partners is not my priority when i made this decision this was little and as for the medvedev sarkozy plan it was not about the breakaway republics but your plan was aimed at stopping the war but saakashvili as i want to thank him had caused in that sense it was

a complete success russia's position on the vatican is quite simple probably made the plan both carried out and it was successful i consider all other interpretations of the events to be run. across the. french officials run used to be you. and recently president sarkozy have said it was still waiting for present material to complete immigrants arc was a plan it was that it was i don't know what i can tell you one thing that france has its own position and so does the e.u. these positions are different from ours we can't do anything about that they're just different you know i believe i have fully completed the met yet have sarkozy plan with the plan said nothing about russia not recognizing abkhazia and south the thirtieth or anything of the sort so as for the retreat our forces have recruited to what russia believes to be their korean waters ition which is a thousand or so you know regarding the e.u. and international perception of the conflict and us and we had been criticizing

russia for failing to complete mitigators that has the plan in addition the u.s. senate recently stated that just like the european parliament they believe that russia's actions in georgia have led to the occupation and the strength of georgia's territory as a liberal leader how do you feel about and phrasing it that way. that's after the storm what was it i think that as the liberal leader of a modern and developing russia i can only give one possible answer these statements are unfounded they reflect the preferences of certain senior citizens in the senate whom juta nonobjective reasons of align themselves with certain individuals that's completely up to them but you are talking about following a problem and i do not much care about how they phrase their statements my position is different it is embodied in the decrees i've signed over that difficult period which i will be frank with you although you may disagree i am not ashamed of having signed those decrees not only am i not ashamed i believe these decisions were much

needed and they were right there was no other way to stop the tragedy but those decisions were very difficult to make. i realize what sort of repercussions they might bring up so i can tell you that i have had long discussions with my aides about these decrees and we saw no obvious solution to the crisis at first nevertheless i think the decisions i made were well thought out the essence of it was to recognise the territories of subjects to international law so we could protect them as for the op that might bring a question that inevitably follows no one knows you know i would be very happy if i were georgian abkhazia and south the seti an authority is went to the negotiating table to discuss how they would continue living side by side how peace and security could be enforced in the region or the future holds for their closely related peoples or they could create together i would be happy if it came to that russia would never obstruct such negotiations. well we have talked about the reactions of

the u.s. senate and the european parliament with no ask you about how all partners in the collective security treaty organization and c.i.s. reactors not a single member of the c.s.t. oh yes or the shanghai cooperation organization supported russia's actions these are countries that only themselves russia's allies and partners they didn't support russia's actions and they did not recognize the breakaway republics do you feel today when you discuss the matter with officials from the state solution. let me tell you how it went when the conflict broke out i called for a siesta meeting i spoke to my partners and i told them that i had to make a difficult decision i told them i did not expect anything from them i understood how hard it would be for them to make a decision of that sort i said a lot of you have territorial issues a lot of you have economic problems you see the world we live in is complicated and a lot of the panel and floor the decision we've made is final but that does not

mean i'm asking you to recognize these new republics. if you do recognize them it will be by your own decision because if you cannot our position will not change now i may be a young man liberal president but i do have some experience and i realize that i would not find many supporters after having made that admission but that is another matter but that was it well. today there are no political forces in georgia who would accept the loss of a president south. and this means that even with those who will come after saakashvili russia will have fundamental differences that is the less able we have our differences of course they would be people we would be able to negotiate with i'm sure they will be willing to negotiate in spite of all possible disagreements. because countries are going to have georgians continue to vote for the people currently in charge of the way the country is going now it's almost half and then

go that way say some unflattering words about suckers fairly because unlike president sarkozy he does not seem to be a person who having a perspective. but i could not insult my toward the little people of georgia vote for certain because that is a choice made by the people of georgia we will respect that it would probably not have a very good effect on our relations but we will respect the choice of the georgian people. and worship in the world. because you've said that even in your close circles there were differences over whether to recognize a pardon south of setia there's a question both in russia and georgia since the end of the war russia has given forty billion burbled in aids to applies in south. this is a huge amount of money that could have been used for russia's internally what does russia need. oh is that your last wish is that we have a lot of programs to help and support other countries that are causing or in south

setia right now maybe you folks is to russia or in diplomatic terms they are entirely dependent on those they are close to us and their own russian citizens living there now if we're providing aid to foreign citizens in foreign states then of course we're going to provide nearby independent characters with a large share of russian citizens this is normal that we used to how god knows who you know you know i mean insolvent times i was the one in the city authority or not but it was good enough having said that does russia believe an international tribunal should be founded to look into the events of the august two thousand and eight but. i look at it as a lawyer would let us forget about circus really for a moment that if it's an international tribunal initiated by one else several states supported by the international community then there is no problem there but if the drug you know in question is an example of volunteerism but if its purpose is to resolve a political problem by removing a leader then i am against it that's the difference but if an international

tribunal is called to judge a leader following an international incident and such a tribe you know has the legal competence the higher justice if you will to judge a head of state. but if the tribunals is only motivated by someone's going to change the political system of a state i would strongly disapprove. it. must apply think what happened there was a flagrant violation of international law. however it would not be possible to rely on russia's position alone on this matter so the creation of such a tribe you know is impossible this means the conflict will ultimately be judged by history and a short term perspective of the voters of georgia it will have to decide which way the country should go. i don't want anything on the question of russia's accession to the world trade organization is very relevant these days russian was into the w t o s w c o wants russian problem as far as we understand is that georgia is

blocking russia's succession and is the only country that's not in favor of russia joining w.t.f. has been talk about georgia agreeing to agree to russia's succession if russia lifts its in bargnani important georgian goods will make some other concessions is russia willing to party for it and what is your take on the prospect of russia joining. us what version that was very well put and one but i don't want to do it carter for it that would be a more was that a moderate georgia has a position on russia's w o t l a session we respect that position as we respect the status of any of a sovereign state as long as that position is in line with the goal set out in the government here is charter trade some trade preferences custom regimes are we ready to discuss it all the important line in mineral water we will discuss it with a lot of the look of the problem is something else in essence our colleagues and daughter are trying to force was a new edition of a political problem just under the guise of going to go recession i'm referring to

entry point control over the traffic of goods then they will want to get the e.u. involved of russia our position on this is clear if you want information about the traffic of goods including transit and sample setia we will provide it by a modern electronic database i've agreed to the suggestion is made by the swiss president that god exists that and i recently discussed it of president obama you know what we're ready to implement the model but switzerland i proposed to wrestle with what about the weather if they try to change the current political reality yes that there were serving it as a prerequisite for russia deleting over session that we won't fall for that company to go essentially is not too high a price to pay to get that going out across. i have a question about russian georgian relations but not the recent conflict some media have reported that the cia has confirmed georgia's version about the bombing at the us embassy in tbilisi being organized by russia's special services as well as a number of other bombings in georgia some media have reported that some world

leaders have confronted you about this can you confirm this article and the idea of leader let me put this plane literally you know head of state who said anything about this to me because he thought there might be upset about this this subject is not on my agenda of negotiations with leaders or it's just not there in subject was painful in two thousand and eight because of the conflicts laws and it was not but now it's off the agenda and there is one issue what it was the w.t.f. session with which we're discussing mainly with the us sometimes with e.u. representatives as for the explosion of the version you mentioned is pure provocative and all sorts of things but also a simple question of how you would produce what you didn't is not an eight year shames you suffer because of it you know the three years have passed or how would you describe your emotions and what i will try to answer this i don't know if i can do it like a child would but i will try i suffer to this day because of what happened then i am convinced however that the decision to retaliate and the recognition of the

breakaway republics and subjects to international law by decisions to make it i believe my actions were constitutional not only are my own ashamed of what i have done i believe my decisions were nor for thought out unnecessary bookings especially question thank you very much mr president. wealthy british science. sometimes. markets why not scandal. find out what's really happening to the global economy jim because we watched on our t.v. . in india oh she's available.