welcome back you were going to be live from moscow and our breaking news this hour . broken. cool after a judge ordered the arrest of the country's former prime minister yulia timoshenko she has been on trial since june over alleged misuse of power. deals with russia in two thousand and nine. markets. worldwide after the worst downturn since two thousand and eight some experts have been predicting a new wave of global recession in the wake of the weakening u.s. economy and even. president medvedev warns the syrian leader his fate might

take a grim turn if he fails to carry out reforms this comes as the siege of an opposition held city continues and more protests are expected after friday prayers. and a group of hardline of muslims is trying to enforce tougher shari'a law in london critics say the provocative campaign could lead to further cultural divisions. on the eve of the third anniversary of the war and the president spoke to wannsee as well as muscovy radio. peak and he spoke about the tough decisions he had to make in august two thousand and eight and the consequences of the war now the discussion is right now here on alt. that's a question mr president thank you very much for agreeing to answer our questions then let us go back to the events of two thousand and eight that then you met with the georgian president mikheil saakashvili your meeting took place in st petersburg

and there was an impression that points both into d.c. and in moscow that we had arrived at some sort of an accord and the dispute would not be allowed to pile over into an armed conflict and i reiterate that this feelings i think both in moscow and didn't. do you trust that the managed to agree on anything with the georgian president back then. porter who were to question you know catherine i had the same impression of a time when i can still recall meeting president saakashvili for the first time it was in some petersburg we met in the constantine palace and mr secretary arrived but i told him literally a little bit you know there are many problems in the region at the moment georgia is at odds with 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 him find some compromise solution that would accommodate everyone and would eventually facilitate a reintegration of georgian territory with that's acceptable for all the parties in the cage a negotiation naturally couples this is what i told it word for word and his

response was spot of course we are ready to cooperate and i also had this impression that we could at least try to find some creative solutions if not a new chapter in 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. but at the same time georgia was getting more and more visits from envoys from across the ocean but as they were dubbed. the moment of truth for me as i realized later all analyzing those events in hindsight over and over again came with a visit by u.s. secretary of state condi leesa rice fields with like following that visit georgian colleague simply draw. 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 getting a most plans were implemented later but mr president am i correct to assume that

the way you see a visit by the u.s. secretary of state was meant to urge president saakashvili little real world cup if you think the united states was deliberately encouraging georgia to pursue a conflict with the most 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 american served georgia's president to reinvade but i do believe that there were certain subtleties and certain hints made statements like it's time to restore constitution. or it's time to be more assertive which could effectively feed saakashvili as a parent hopes of the americans would back him in any conflict that they would stand up for georgia and even go to war with the russians 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 conversations and then also some meetings. 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 green lighted by washington or well 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 why jordan counterpart ceased all communication with us following the visit by condoleezza rice maybe that was just a coincidence but i'm almost absolutely sure that that was when they came up with a plan for the military gamble which in shoot in august two thousand and eight was in any case mr president war represents a failure of diplomacy looking back at the situation three years later what would you have done in a different way what is it that russia failed to do. order to prevent a war with them i can tell you frankly that i realized back in july two thousand and eight that mr saakashvili was nurturing such plans in his inflamed mind 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 furred country in order to talk to him simply talk him out of it 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 realized that by unleashing this war suckers fully had personally devoted his country to destruction and that is the scariest part both for him and for the georgian people . latin the russian forces reached 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 hope the invasion would suckers really had unleashed on the 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 deposing saakashvili 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 open they still believe that while questions the initial response was legitimate self-defense the first their actions so they're rushing through where excessive why wasn't this an option until push the georgian forces out of the search area and stop at that point to change its course. you know sophie people are free to make speculations like that old that was what 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 nearly forced them out and stop there will be hearing from georgia yes but with that we should fall back to our initial position and our american friends and that allies with colleagues rearm get our craft and what not and then would free resume the same offensive with renewed vigor at the world letting them do that it would have been a crime against the memory of those who died protecting their land therefore our mission at that time was to destroy georgia which train so that it wouldn't be able to target civilians i a second. of the russian federation which i think has as you know what it's all mixed that gritty look i was there when i when i should know better by militant i'm . surprised that you were referring to the recent horseman's operation and i keep thinking back to today media and syria when do you consider it acceptable to stand for what's the rationale for deciding whether it's ok to launch abuse and it wasn't you should got that there is russia be lenient to gadhafi in libya and here it is

imposing sanctions against syria how do you accommodate your decisions on georgia back then and russia's stance on today's prices motion. you see alexey it's always case by case they were no identical countries and there are no identical solutions i guess it's clear to you what is going on in libya so there's a man who has been running the country for forty years and at some point he decided to use force against his own people the will of this 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 steal or to run libya through military means we don't think it's the right thing to do and there is one nuance you should keep in mind georgia had been split into three parts by the time of the bill that it should have been about pulling the country back together for them rather than merely restoring constitutional order i thought reza libya is still in one piece of such a risk but does exist for libya but so far the parties in

a conflict like lending most of us in the program happy forces pledge 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 i'm merely trying to demonstrate that all of these situations and scenarios diverse this goes for other countries as well some of us i think what about syria and they should syria syria is a more complex asia but sadly their situation has been unfolding in a very dramatic way so far. all of us practical politician should keep a close watch on the developments in that country but they 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 it is another route is our deepest concern that therefore in my discussions with president assad during our personal conversation most and in our

correspondence i've been advocating one principle idea that he should immediately long for reforms reconcile with the opposition restore civil authority and start developing a modern state should he fail to do that he's in for a grim face of it and we will eventually have to take some decisions on syria to show naturally we've been watching developments very attentively the situation is changing and so what are the objectives on the minutes if that's that's the backdrop of this look at some of the numbers in the wake of the. or in two thousand and eight russian envoys and the representatives of south us thanked his de facto government it is the fighting in sin valley that claimed two thousand blanks that was the number that was the now that later on russia's investigative committee estimates of the casualties and i was one hundred fifty people i think i mean while it was this alleged toll of ten thousand this would search some of the main reasons for launching this so-called peace important operation how do you count this

discrepancy now three years after that i will. look up in the north of israel itself and i have explained by rationale for taking out a decision on the numerous occasions you see i didn't go get any figures for motivation this isn't exactly a case for mathematics in illinois let me remind you what was going on away on the night between august the seventh and 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 but the minister told me that georgia had launched a full scale combat operation so look to be honest my initial reaction was complete that was it was that i told the minister we should check this but in the sack is really completely out of his mind maybe it's just a provocative act i say the stress test your seconds in trying to send out some kind of message and i will later minister reported to me this is no bluff they've got an elaborate artillery barrage which are they using grad rocket launchers and

whatnot i said all right i'll wait for another update or get some more time to pass the minister called again if i have something to tell you i believe they've just leveled a 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 reports and instant decisions and difficult for them as to which is i can tell you that was the hardest night of my life. casualty of spanish started coming in later i mean just like that i did divergent then they still do i'm not a detective nor a forensic expert i don't perform exhumations. friends and colleagues tell us that many bodies were buried backlash and remain missing to this guy for the night meanwhile jordan analysts are sent different estimates was that you know we can use this kind of logic two thousand and five is serious enough but the one hundred

fifty doesn't even qualify as casualty of the peace actually it was a little thought. mr president you said you give the order to return fire what are the operation continues after that heavy weapons rolled in and the conflict turns into an all out war could you tell us about how you made the decision to continue the operation and not a question that all our colleagues would like answered who calls him first did you call prime minister putin in the first or did he call you did you and the prime minister called you need to move. and we just went with this is the first time i contacted him about that complex just it was about twenty four hours after it had broken out some of the work involved was already ablaze what a waste of 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 section of the law it was good to understand it's not very appropriate to discuss matters like this by south and it's obvious that it's also a lot of trouble to establish a security line with someone who's in a different country that we taught you sure they were talking a little when he came back i mean but even before his return i called

a meeting of the security council that i explained my position my decision to return fire and they gave him a conflict with the security council members voiced their support for my decision some time later we had the meeting in softly which mr putin attended where this is in relation to this we have to mention it's a sarkozy who was at the time chairman of the european union i go at it because although i can't talk about him without a smile unlike the other president we discussed today because i like him and. yet. i see according to some it was sarkozy who persuaded you to hold the russian forces march towards. in the us come of course not but no head of state is capable of talking another head of state into anything but look at the world trying to talk him down for giving up with a very persuaded him to do anything you know and i don't think they will but surely he would sooner die in his bunker 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 it would suppose he did was very kind he 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 and then he told me i'm currently chairing the e.u. i could come over to discuss the incident but he's very good at this sort of thing and he loves doing it he came to moscow and we talked i explained why positions and what he told me i understand the nie agree. some things i will be able to say in public some i wanted to but regardless of that i did want to have a part in stopping this conflict but with that i told him all right let's put a plan together that plan was later called. the ceasefire. we told him he could take the 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 really done it was grave enough to go on to georgia with our initiatives and he gonna dissatisfactory

reaction play the georgian authorities. president secretary first and foremost that's that was his contribution to the diplomatic corps that helped solve the conflict legacy but in the west it's recognizing up hard and soft and says yes it is not in accordance with the spirit of the peace treaty and he did sarkozy plan which had the end of the war called for the return of the armed forces to the pre-war positions by russia recognize the sovereignty of this republic and kept its armed forces in the region right now there are russian military bases in every president's office says yeah how did sarkozy co-author of the plan react to this so that i can say that i never discussed the matter with him he did not come to moscow to discuss that he was never involved in my 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 but i heard them but pleasing our partners you are not my

priority when i made this decision. and as for the medvedev sarkozy plan it was not about the breakaway republics your plan was aimed at stopping the war billy's i want to take it and had caused in that sense it was a complete success russia's position on the bat is quite simple probably made the plan both carried out and it was successful i consider all of the return for tayshaun still the events to be run. across the. french officials from used to be you. and recently president sarkozy had said it was still waiting for president really to completely be answered was it learned it was one of them well. 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 but i believe i have fully completed the millionaire sarkozy plan the plan said nothing about russia not recognizing abkhazia and south exactly yet or anything of the sort so as for the retreat our forces have recruited to what

russia believes to be their korean war position which in one thousand sales regarding the e.u. and international perception of the conflict and us and even you been criticizing russia for failing to complete mitigated plan in addition the us senate recently stated that just like the european parliament they believe that russia's actions in georgia have led to the occupation of twenty percent of georgia's territory that it is a liberal leader how do you feel about them phrasing it that way parts of the state that sent. them a storm that 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 but they reflect the preferences of certain senior citizens in the senate who juta nonobjective reasons of align themselves with certain individuals that's completely up to them but we are talking about a foreign a parliament and i do not much care about how they phrase their statements 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 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 that was and we saw no obvious solution to the crisis at first nevertheless i think the decisions i made were well thought out yet the essence of it was to recognize the territory as a subjects to international law so we could protect them but as for what 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 setian authorities 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 where the future holds for their closely related peoples what they could create together i would be happy if it came to that russia would never obstruct such negotiations. we have talked about the reactions of the u.s. senate and the european parliament will now ask you about how all partners in the collective security treaty organization and c.i.s. reacted not a single member of the c.i.s. or the shanghai cooperation organization supported russia's actions these are countries that they themselves russia's allies and they didn't support russia's actions and they did not recognize the break we're going to 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. 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 the world we live in is complicated and i want to dependent lord 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 if you do not opposition 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. today there are no political forces in georgia who would accept the loss of. life and this means that even with those who will come after saakashvili russia will have fundamental differences. 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. georgians continue to vote for the people currently in charge for the way the country is going on its course having them. for a certain flattering words about saakashvili because unlike president sarkozy he does not seem to be a person worthy of respect. but i could not insult the little people of georgia vote for a certain clique of people 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 i think we will respect the choice of the georgian people. and the world. but. you've said that even in your close circles there were differences over whether to recognize applies in south. there's a question both in russia and georgia since the end of the war russia has given forty billion rubles an age to applies in south asia this is

a huge amount of money that could have been used for russia's internally what does russia need this war. oh well we have a lot of programs to help and support other countries have cars here in south setia right now maybe the focus is to russia or in diplomatic terms they are entirely dependent on those they are close to us and the russian citizens living back now if we're providing aid to foreign citizens in foreign states then of course we're going to provide nearby independent territories because with a large share of russian citizens this is normally used to help god knows who you know you know when you're in soviet times in the thirty. other to avoid it i mean he said that does russia believe an international tribunal should be founded to look into the ground so that august two thousand and eight that. i look at it as a lawyer i would look at them let us forget about saakashvili for a moment but you know if it's an international tribunal initiated by one has

several states yet supported by the international community then there is no problem there but if the tribunals in question is an example of volunteerism if its purpose is to resolve a political problem by removing a leader and i am against it that's the difference but if an international tribunal is called to judge a leader following an international incident then 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'm strongly disapprove. but. i 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 tribunal is impossible this means the conflict will ultimately be judged by history and a short term perspective the voters of georgia 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 rushing into the w.t.f. the w c o wants russian problem as far as we understand is that george is blocking russia's expression it is the only country that's not in favor of russia joining the w.c.s. yes there's been talk about georgia agreeing to agree to russia's expression if russia lifts its impact on the inclusive georgian goods to make some other concessions is russia willing to barter for it and what is your take on the prospects of russia joining. us now that is a very well put one but i don't want to do it carter for it that would be immoral a moderate georgia has a position on russia's w t o a session we respect their position as we respect the status of any of us southern states as long as that position is in line with the goal set out in the w kiran's charter of trade secret preferences custom regimes we

are ready to discuss it all the important line in mineral water we will discuss several things that absolutely but the problem is something else in essence our colleagues in georgia apply to force us to a new edition of a political problem just under the guise of w. to go recession i'm referring to entry point control over the traffic of goods stability and they will want to get the e.u. involved russia our position on this is clear that if you want information about the traffic of goods including transit for abkhazia and south or seti or we will provide it via a modern electronic database or your ivory to the suggestions made by the swiss president much harder this time i recently discussed above president obama the world with ready set limits a model but switzerland has proposed to wrestle with almost all the however if they try to change the current political reality yes that they are but that serving as a prerequisite for russia really took over session we won't fall for that. essential which is not too high a price to pay get that. i have a question about russian georgian relations that's not the recent conflict some

media have reported that the cia has confirmed georgia's version about the bombing of the u.s. embassy in to d.c. being organized by russian 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 that it was in the idea of leader let me put this plane literally you know head of state and said anything about this to me daughter might be upset about this but this subject is not on my agenda of negotiations with your leaders it's just not there the subject was painful in two thousand and eight because of a conflict thought it was but now it's off the agenda but there is one issue on it of course the recession which we're discussing mainly with the u.s. and sometimes with e.u. representatives that's for the explosions the version you mentioned is pure provocative and all sorts of things but also the simple question are you proud of what you didn't is not an age you ashamed to suffer because of it you know that for

years have passed how would you describe your emotions. so 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 with the bike decisions to make it i believe my actions were constitutional not only on my own ashamed of what i have done i believe my decisions were nor for thought out unnecessary bookings. i thank you very much mr president. for the full support we've got it's. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers on parties. in india parties available in the we're going to join the hotel.