could have you with us this hour this is our t. live in moscow top stories now unrest has broken out near a ukrainian court after a judge ordered the arrest of the country's former prime minister yulia tymoshenko she's been on trial since june over alleged misuse of power while sunny gas deals with russia in two thousand and nine. markets are volatile worldwide after the worst downturn since two thousand and eight and some experts are predicting a new wave of global recession in the wake of the weakening u.s. economy and. president medvedev warns the syrian leader his fate might take

agreeing to an if you fail to reforms this comes as at least ten people were killed in new mass protests following friday prayers. well on the eve of the third anniversary of the war in south ossetia president medvedev spoke to r.t. as well as muscovy radio and georgian t.v. channel pique and spoke about the tough decisions he had to make an organist two thousand and eight and the consequences of that and that is next we. expensive russia 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 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 into k.c. and in moscow that we had arrived at some sort of the court and the dispute would not be allowed to pile over into an armed conflict and i reiterate that this feeling that i think both must go and. get out of the managed to agree on anything

with the georgian president back then they seek to push 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 but you know there are many problems in the region of the moment georgia is an obsolete 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 solutions that would accommodate everyone and would eventually facilitate a reintegration of georgian territory with perhaps acceptable for all the parties in a cage a negotiation naturally this is what i told him all word for word and his response was so of course we are ready to cooperate and i also had this impression that we could at least trying to find some creative solutions if not a new chapter entirely 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 georgian counterparts which there was no way out of the same time georgia was getting more and more visits from envoys from across the ocean because they were double speak options 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 condoleezza rice still flying 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 and most plans were implemented later. mr president am i correct to assume that the way you see it visit by the u.s. secretary of state so it was meant to urge president saakashvili into your country do you 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 as a parent hopes that 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 conversation and then also some meetings at the you know 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 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 my jordan counterpart ceased all communication with us following the visit by khan to lisa rice maybe that was just a coincidence but i'm almost absolutely sure the back was when they came up with a plan for the military gamble which in shoot in august two thousand and eight which is what it is in any case mr president war represents a failure of diplomacy i mean looking back at the situation three years later what would you have done differently what is it that russia fails to do. order to prevent it will. i can tell you frankly how do 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 or 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 for the use of force i still thought it was a paranoid scenario where that 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 saakashvili had personally devoted his country to destruction and that is the scariest part both for him and for the georgian people. russian forces reached a.b.c. 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 or rowling objective was to halt the invasion that sucker's fully had unleashed decides i'm neither a judge nor an executioner which 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 opposing 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 up if they still believe that while the russians the initial response was legitimate self-defense the further actions of the russian troops were excessive why wasn't it an option to push the georgian forces out of the south yet and stop at that point to. cause let's. you know sophie people are free to make speculations like that all there was no and i have come across them many times tried 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 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 help us rearm

get our you aircraft and whatnot and then with your resume the same offensive with renewed vigor the world with letting them do vastly 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 georgian swimmer training so the original wouldn't be able to target civilians i have settled on the russian federation because as you know what you all mixed there but those that want to let you know that i'm going to them because i'm pretty. surprised that you were referring to the peace and force ones operation and i keep thinking back to today libya and syria when do you consider it acceptable to step up what's your rationale for deciding whether it's ok to launch a piece and it wasn't me she's got that there is russia to 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 ocean. 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 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 so this was condemned by the entire international community including russia which is in. taking any part in the military campaign reza few nations are attempting to learn still ordering go through military means we don't think it's the point thing to do but there is one nuance you should keep in mind georgia has been split into three parts by the time of the deal with them it should have been about pulling the country back together for them rather than merely restoring constitutional order of reds libya is still in one piece such a risk does exist for libya but so far the parties in the conflict look like lending the so-called rebels in the program daffy forces a pledge that 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 are totally diverse this goes for other countries as well some of us i think would want syria and should syria syria is a more complex issue 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 and get a good laugh a for one had issued unequivocal orders to slaughter opposition activists by contrast syria's president never ordered anything like that then you know unfortunately people are dying in syria in grave numbers i'm not a rouses our deepest concern that therefore in my discussions with president assad during our personal conversation was planted in our correspondence i've been advocating one principle idea that he should immediately known 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 faced and we will eventually have to take some decisions on syria to actually we've been watching developments very attentively the situation is changing and so what our objectives. on the minutes at others that's the crux of this is a look at some of the numbers in the wake of the war in two thousand and eight russian envoy sound the representatives of south us debt is the de facto government argued that the fighting in simi valley i claimed two thousand lives that was the number that was the now later on russia's investigative committee estimates of the casualties it normal's one hundred fifty people i think meanwhile it was this alleged toll of two thousand serbs on the main reasons for not showing the so-called peace important operation how do you count this discrepancy now three years after that i will. bring you more legitimacy from i have explained by rationale for taking out a decision on the universe occasions you see i didn't go to any figures for there

was mention this isn't exactly a place for mathematics it's more noise and let me remind you what was going on the last little bit on the night between august seventh and all that's the eighth when 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 and minister told me that georgia had launched a full scale combat operation look at the honest my initial reaction was complete damsels it was that i told the minister we should check this really completely out of his mind that robotic maybe it's just a provocative act and maybe he stress test you know your settings so you're trying to send us some kind of message what it shows an hour later the minister reported to me that he listens no bluff they've only got until i was out celery power which i'm now using grad rocket launchers and whatnot i said all right i'll wait for another update or some more time passed in the minister called again 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 i feel good unfortunately such situations are always about the instant situation room and police and the systems and difficult ones to which unfortunately i can tell you that was the hardest night of my life. casualty estimates started coming in later i did just like that i did divergent they don't they still do yet i'm not a detective nor a forensic expert on what i don't perform exhumations. in friends and colleagues tell us that many bodies were buried back that and remain missing to this day and the night we were all killed in analysts are sent different estimates was that you know we can't use this kind of logic two thousand lives are serious enough but one hundred fifty doesn't even qualify as casual stuff let me sexually but was called a little for that to come. mr president you said you give the order to return fire that are the operation continued after that weapons rolled in and the conflict

turned into an all out war could you tell us about how you made the decision to continue the operation answer another question get all our colleagues would like answered your who called whom first did you call prime minister putin in beijing first or did he call you when you got it how did you and the prime minister called move. well it's not so the first time i contacted hill that's conflict stuff that was about twenty four hours after it had broken out the mother was 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 six year old boy was i to understand it's not very appropriate to discuss matters like this by cell phone it's not you know it's also a lot of trouble to establish a secure line with someone who's in a different country that we taught usually we're talking a little thought he came back i mean even before his return i called a meeting of the security council which i explained my position my decision to return fire and engage in a conflict with the security council members voiced their support for my decision a little some time later we had the meeting in softly which mr putin attended with

. 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 that 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 d.c. . in the last come of course not but no head of state is capable of talking another head of state into anything look at the world trying to talk to giving out that what 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 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 and 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 serve

him which then he told me i'm currently chairing the e.u. i could come over to discuss the inside is 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 and that's what the plan together that plan was later called of the ceasefire. 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 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 but in the west it's believed that recognizing uprising and

south ossetia is not in accordance with the spirit of the peace treaty and if sarkozy planned which at the end of the war called for the return of the armed forces to the pre-war positions by russia though reckons as to seventy of his republics and its armed forces in the region right now there are russian military bases in the president's south ossetia how did sarkozy coauthor of the plan react to this so that 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 pleasing our partners here not my priority when i made this decision. and as for the medvedev psychos the plan it was not about the breakaway republics but your plan was aimed at stopping the war with such believes are taken had caused in that sense it was

a complete success russia's position on the back is quite simple probably made the plan both carried out and it was successful i consider all other interpretations of the events to be wrong. but french officials run musical. and recently president sarkozy had said it was still waiting for present material to complete immigrants are was applying it was the correct one i don't know what i can tell you one thing with france has its own position and so does the e.u. but these positions are different from ours we can't do anything about that they're just different but i believe i have fully complete a familiar yet have sarkozy plan with no plan said nothing about russia not recognizing and south setia or anything of the sort as for the rich our forces have retreated to what russia believes to be their pre-war position was one of those things have to say you know regarding the e.u. and international perception of the conflict and us and even you been criticizing

the russian for failing to complete mitigate if that has the 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 as a liberal leader how do you feel about them phrasing it that way. that sense of. the visit but 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 and jews are not objective reasons of a nine themselves with certain individuals that's completely up to them we are talking about a foreign appalled and i do not much care about how they phrase their statements and 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 it's 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 were that 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 recognise the territories of subjects to international law so we could protect them 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 the settee 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 what 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 you know i ask you about how our partners in the collective security treaty organization and c.i.s. we have not a single member of the c.s.t. or c.i.s. of all the shanghai cooperation organization supported russia's actions these are countries that make themselves russia's allies and partners but they didn't support russia's actions and they did not recognize the great wherewithal how do you feel today when you discuss the matter with officials from government solution. let me tell you how it went when the conflict broke out i called for a c s t o 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 but 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 but the world we live in is complicated and i wanted to go ahead 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 if you cannot our position will not change now i may be a young and 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 here. today there are no political forces in georgia who would accept the loss of lives in south ossetia and this means that even with those who will come after saakashvili russia will have fundamental differences. yes i mean we have our differences of course but they would be people we would be able to negotiate with i'm sure they will be willing to negotiate in spite of our possible disagreements. because countries are going to continue to vote for the people currently in charge for the way the country is going now lets

them go to the floor and they say certain flattering words about saakashvili because unlike president sarkozy he does not seem to be a person worthy of respect that's what i could not insult the toward the little people of georgia or 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 respect the choice of the georgian people. that even in your close circles there were differences over whether to recognize our presence out of such a there's a question both in russia and georgia since the end of the war russia has given forty billion rubles an aids talk buys in south looks at you this is a huge amount of money that could have been used for russia's internally what does russia need. well is that we're not so sure we have a lot of programs to help and support other countries have cars here in south

a secular right now maybe closest to russia or in diplomatic terms they are entirely dependent on those they are close to us and the 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 we used to how god knows who you know you know the onion in soviet times in the studio. how did it look 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 i would look at them let us forget about saakashvili for a moment that if it's an international tribunal initiated by one of 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 but if its purpose is to resolve a political problem by removing a leader and i am against it that's the difference because if an international

tribunal is called to judge a leader of following an international incident then such a tribe you know has the legal competence to hire 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 the state i would strongly disapprove. it. because the 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 in this matter so the creation of such a tribunal is impossible this means the conflict will ultimately be judged by history not going to short term perspective the voters of georgia who will have to decide which way the country should go. i don't want. anything on the question of russia's expression to the world trade organization is very relevant these days russia was into the w t o s a w c o once russian problem as far as we understand is

that george was blocking russia's accession is the only country that's not in favor of russia joining the w.t.f. just talk about georgia agreeing to agree to russia's expression russia lifts its impact on imported georgian goods will make some other concessions is russia willing to part of for it and what is your take on the prospect of russia joining. what the bush and bush and that was very well put it on but i don't want to do is carter for it would be a moral moderate georgia has a position on russia's w.o.t. of its session we respect their position as we respect the stoicism any of us other interstate as long as that position is in line with the goal set out in the w t o's charter trade secret preferences custom regimes are we ready to discuss it all the important wine and mineral water we will discuss over things let's look at the problem is something else in essence our colleagues in georgia are going to force a new edition of the political problem just under the guise of w t o a session i'm

referring to the entry point for control over the traffic of goods and they will want to get the e.u. involved russia opposition 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 filing today so your i've agreed to the suggestion is made by the swiss president musharraf exists there and i recently discussed about president obama you know what we're ready to intonate the model but switzerland has proposed to almost all however if they try to change the current political reality yes they're serving it as a prerequisite for russia to have a session that we want for their w t o essential which is not too high a price to pay had such a process. 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 of the us embassy in tbilisi be woken 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 was it the idea leader let me put this plainly resolutely no head of state has said anything about this to mean of course the daughter might be upset about this but this subject is not on my agenda of negotiations with leaders it's just not there but obviously the subject was painful in two thousand and eight because of the conflicts laudanum with them but now it's off the agenda but there is one issue but it was a w.t.f. session which we're discussing mainly with the us and sometimes with e.u. representatives as for the explosions the version you mentioned is pure provocative a nonsense but also a let's go simple question are you proud of that what you didn't is not an eight are you ashamed that you suffer because of it now the three years have passed on how would you describe your emotional because well you know what i will try to answer this i don't know if i can do it like a child ward but i will try i suffer to this day because of what happened then i am

convinced however of the decision to retaliate and the recognition of the breakaway republics and subjects to international law but with the bike decisions to make it i believe my actions were constitutional not only my own ashamed of what i have done which i believe my decisions were nor fault thought out and necessary things that basic question thank you very much mr president. is going. to. bring you the latest in science and technology from the realm. of the future covered. india aussies available in the gulf the joint chiefs jones up.