the conflict with georgia devastated the region but finally brought recognition the morial service is being held in the capital this involved for the victims of the. on the eve of that anniversary president bit of spoke with r t along with a whole mosque the radio and georgian t.v. channel p k about why he took action in the legacy of that decision the interview coming up. i said 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 in tbilisi 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 feeling was present both in moscow and into d.c. could you tell us that he managed to agree on anything with the georgian president back then. you know catherine i had the same impression of the 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 i told him literally 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 good as a newly elected president of russia i shall do everything in my capacity to help you find some compromise solution that would accommodate everyone and would eventually facilitate a reintegration of georgian territory that's acceptable for all the parties in that cage a negotiation naturally this is what i told her word for word and his response was spot 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 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 georgian counterparts. but at the same time

georgia was getting more and more visits from envoys from across the ocean as they would be double. shifts 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 condi lisa rice following that visit my georgian colleague simply dropped. 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 to assume that the way you see the visit by the u.s. secretary of state was meant to urge president saakashvili. 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 american said 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 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 our meetings at the. one world question in here are but they still believe that russia's 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 set and stop at that point to. of course. you know people are free to make speculation like that and i have come

across the many times to try putting yourself in the shoes of russia's commander in chief my shoes that is sure we could have merely forced them out and stopped there but what we're hearing from georgia we should fall back to our initial position and our american friends and their allies will help us rearm get our new aircraft and whatnot and then we should resume the same offensive with a new. well letting them do that 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 war machine so the legion wouldn't be able to target civilians i was setting. on the russian federation because as you know it's all mixed they're. surprised that you were referring to the piece in foursomes operation and i keep thinking back to today libya and syria when do you consider it acceptable to step. down for deciding whether it's ok to launch a piece and it wasn't me she got that here is russia billion to gadhafi in libya

and here it is imposing sanctions against syria how do you did your decisions on georgia back then 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 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 and this was condemned by the entire international community including russia which is we're not taking any part in the military campaign reza few nations are attempting to instill order in libya 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 war which should have been about pulling the country back together for them rather than merely restoring constitutional order of libya is still in one piece such a risk does exist for libya but so far the parties in the conflict the so-called

rebels in the program dappy forces have pledged 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 are totally diverse. this goes for other countries as well. what about syria and. 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 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 and that arouses our deepest concern that therefore in my discussions with

president assad during our personal conversation with and in our correspondence i've been advocating one principle idea that he should immediately launch reforms reconcile with the opposition restore civil accord and start developing a modern state should he fail to do that he's in for a grim face and we will eventually have to take some decisions on syria to naturally we've been watching developments very attentively the situation is changing and so we're reactive. it answers that it's the thoughts of this is a look at some of the numbers in the wake of the war in two thousand and eight russian envoy said the representatives of south a set is de facto government that the fighting in simi valley had claimed two thousand lives that was the number that was announced that later on russia's investigative committee estimate of the casualties at no more than one hundred fifty people meanwhile it was this alleged toll of ten thousand this would serve as one of the main reasons for launching this so-called peace important operation how

do you account for this discrepancy now three years after that. i have explained by rationale for taking the decision on the numerous occasions you see i didn't go to any figures flotus nation this isn't exactly a case for mathematics and more noise let me remind you what was going on last night between. the seventh the eighth i received a phone call from the defense minister i was on the 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 the minister told me that georgia had launched a full scale combat operation to be honest my initial reaction was completely down i told the minister that we should check this. completely out of his mind maybe it's just a provocative act and maybe he stress test satins trying to send us some kind of message and i will later minister reported to me this is no bluff they've done.

it and they're using grad rocket launchers and whatnot i said all right i'll wait for another hour or some more time if asked 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 had been announced at that point. mr president you said you gave the order to get out of the operation continued after the heavy weapons rolled in and the conflict turned into an all out could you tell us about how you made the decision to continue the operation and another question that all our colleagues would like answered who called whom first did you call prime minister first or did he call you how did you and the prime minister called you need to move. the first time i contacted him about a conflict was about twenty four hours after it had broken out that involved was already ablaze mr putin just made a statement condemning tbilisi's move that was the right thing to do of course we

spoke twenty four hours after the attack over a secure line and i do understand it's not very appropriate to discuss matters like this by south areas it's also a lot of trouble to establish a secure line with someone who's in a different country we talked and then we talked when he came back but even before his return i called to meet. of the security council i explained my position my decision to return fire and engage in conflict security council members voiced their support for my decision sometime later we had the meeting in which mr putin attended. moving on the question of russia's accession to the world trade organization is very relevant these days russia into the w t w c o wants russian the problem as far as we understand is that georgia is blocking russia's accession it is the only country that's not in favor of russia joining the w t. there's been talk about georgia agreeing to agree to russia's expression if russia lifts its

impact on the imports of georgian goods will make some other concessions is russia willing to barter for it and what is your take on the prospect of russia joining. us. that was very well put the one point i don't want to do is barter for it that would be immoral georgia has a position on russia's w o t o a session we respect that position as we respect the stance of any other sovereign state as long as that position is in line with the goal set out in the charter trade trade preferences custom regimes we're ready to discuss it all the imports of wine and mineral water we will discuss anything but the problem is something else in essence our colleagues in georgia trying to force a new edition of the political problems under the guise of w t o a session i'm referring to entry points control over the traffic of goods then they will want to get the e.u. involved our position on this is clear if you want information about the traffic of

goods including transit and south of setia we will provide it via a modern electronic database i've agreed to the suggestions made by the swiss president regarding this and i recently discussed it with president obama we're ready to implement the model that switzerland has proposed to us however if they try to change current. the tickle reality yes that was the serving it was a prerequisite for russia a session we won't fall for that. essentially is not too high a price to pay thank you very much mr president.

more news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china corporations are all day. reviewing the week's top stories on our t.v. u.s. stripped of its prized aaa credit rating for the first time triggering fears of

another global financial crisis as investors are ready for a black monday the downgrade comes despite the white house making a last minute deal with republicans to raise the country's debt ceiling. in the eurozone debt woes provoke a turbulent week with european central bankers agreeing to buy italian and spanish bonds now to stop the rot brussels is worried if italy's economy fails it would be too big to rescue one could drive the whole currency down with it. and fervor spreads as reporter of a million israeli protesters demand the government drive down the cost of living or go prime minister netanyahu sets up a team to look at reducing taxes but the opposition says he's trying to end the protests and deal with the issue. finally we go to the republic of south though said here marking three years since the conflict with georgia it devastated the region but finally brought about a recognition morial services are being held in the capital it's involved for the victims of the conflict. stay with us here on our sports up next.

hello welcome to the sports news and the other headlines. game of the season spartak moscow miss a penalty but come from two goals down and made a floodlight failure to a four to a ten month you know russian premier league thriller. plus that's why they're champions manchester united come from two goals down to beat rivals manchester city three two in stoppage time to win the community shield at wembley. and loves to reach russia come back from three goals down to beat switzerland six four be crowned european beach champions. refers to conventional football and an unconventional match having missed a penalty and endured a break for a flop like failure spartak moscow came back from two goals down to win four to

attack in a pulsating match in the russian premier league the home side so a first through after that off on thursday morrissey has netted a rebound of penalties from a few to no answer just before half time. missed the penalties thanks to nail it stayed there three minutes after the interval had x. and i ever saw the reds and the meet you can pull the goal back from the penalty spot before our eight made it to two off to seventy six minutes but then the lights went out of the new stadium and it took fifteen minutes to get them pushing the release and when the game resumed and valid it netted a goalie deep into injury time he was spot on the win for two yes in complete contrast it was an uneventful game for lokomotiv who were held to a goal of the strong by bottom side please about self. well meanwhile twice former champions rubin kept up the pressure on the top four with a controversial one no win at second bottom spot no chick defend only under the

silver star his feeble first half penalty denied as they go to. but he didn't think it safe his blushes with a seventy second neat strike despite a wave of protests from the home side who insisted the strike handled the ball in the build up still moving to victory and stay fifth. while in the early kick off and he was not i cannot easy to know when is it not he had been there for a match winners runs finites. opened thirty two minutes and. in the second half was in charge blasted in a long range cracker from a set piece to condemn his poor side and the third defeat in four games. one on saturday champions and eat humble league leaders take on moscow to nil to get the gap to the top two just two points two goals within one second half minutes did the damage and from the casual cough and the fifty four minutes with a pinpoint header before an unmarked that's when that new call for us was limited

to nil in play you go i can say if it was me a post that if it was only the second this season batista was neat and now unbeaten going nine games. so i read defeat so far this season for it's ayscough supporters but some of the fans will want to remember this day for a very long time as a group of birthday boys and girls were given the poetic present the chance to walk out onto the pitch with their heroes scott mcclellan has more of. all these kids have at least a couple of things in common one of them of course is their undivided love for the red and blue club says moscow and the other is that they're all celebrating their birthday in august when the site approached i read the announcement and says sky website and now both my sister and i are here to lead the players out. the announcement sasha was talking about it is a club streamer country and aimed at winning over the hearts of supporters from an early age in this case it's both boys and girls aged eight to twelve all parents

have to do is submit their kids' birth certificate to sascoc and they will get knocked. units each leader at their favorite player one of their games that often missed calls that were made that told me that i could leave the player on to the pitch i said yes straight away because i have to scout and interact is is my favorite. those lucky enough to be among the first eleven up against it a birthday present which their friends will probably talk about for months after all it is a dream come true to be to your ideal to such an important much like the one between serious and senate that. i've been a fan of says scott ever since i can remember myself and i would not miss this chance for anything something like this may never happen again. if not to see it start. which will be soon be restrained the memories that gratitude for their parents put thinking in the reminiscence of a special birthday present more than likely remain in their hearts for. scott mcclellan are to. watch over in england money scored twice including the stoppage

time winner is defending premier league champions manchester united came from two goals down to beat f.a. cup winners and fierce rivals manchester city three to and win a thrilling community shield encounter when really the additional curtain raiser to the new season proved to be a thriller i will give united a psychological lift as they a top flight title number twenty city took the lead after thirty eight minutes joleon lescott hitting fast every time the goalkeeper dobie the heia and first half stoppers time to inject zero have enough space to run in five home city second however after united's chris smalling volley to go back soon after the restart and united were level within an hour of nanny chipping keep the joe hart then diffident a stoppage time hesitation i've been some company on the halfway line allowed nani to run unchallenged round hot and complete a scintillating comeback. meanwhile russia have won the year only a super fine in beach soccer for the second time in their history after coming from three goals down to beat switzerland six four in moscow as

a month of reports. russia has already established itself as one. world's biggest soccer powerhouses alongside giants like brazil stay in forty goal to name just a few the euro league super final held in moscow for the first sign by the way proved once again that they seem is a force to be reckoned with come the world cup however the home team started the super final slow and that's because it lightly the swiss side for their euro league runners up in last year's tournament managed to upset the sold out improvise be sure read up three times by the end of the first period their star player and look at what's he must go striker de young stunk of scored a brace and his teammate borrero added the third should be to get in it was obvious that two one two top form in the opening minutes billion we couldn't hold on to the bull and eventually conceded some pretty easy gills but i think we were by far more calm from the second i fear it only would spice it up and achieve the result of both the russians finally brought some joy to the fans in the first minute of the

second period after scoring a penalty switzerland's replied with a goal of their own a minute later but despite the disadvantage the home side managed to build on that first goal and equalized at the end of the second period it's not easy to play here against three thousand people and also a strong russian team. that i think they make a good game but also you know what ash is one of the best team in the both. that. you have to learn from this this game the score remained at four four until the clock showed three minutes before the final whistle and it was a van that russia took the lead for the first time in the super final through the meeting shisha and two minutes later the same player with the yearly crown beyond any doubt for russia after scoring his second for the team russia have become the champions of the continent for the second sign while switzerland have lost the euro league super finals for the second time in a row however both teams will get a chance to square off once again at the upcoming world cup in september that's why

it's eleven the soccer season baseball from all over the. locations are not good at all it's good that it's ok to compete or talk alters the beach saw the world where russia is considered to be one of the favorite things robotic all through arctic moscow finally twice ok on detroit red wings center pavel does so has won this year's column off try to say they were orders given by russian newspaper soviets sport which recognizes the top russian player in the n.h.l. and r.t. spoke at that soup but life on and off the ice. it's a hard question slightly also so when will they have from the sort of being system there i'm not there from. mike not only in the inside team and the whole organisation i'm not they will close the deal to this fifteen year some of the more so when there are some people who are hard to jump inside to feel like given the

families of the swine everybody that is more towards the day's tweeting from here. i'm still playing soccer and i a large part of a lot of other. things saw it so it's you know so i can like more and. this is my way and when i'm drunk i just think in clinton kind of play hockey some of them plans are going to put them stuff in the play in the hockey i don't need funded time for slaughter and i'm i think one thing. it's in my billet both sides have from the good news is more than a also a little bit torch what i'm made in the my during the thirty year day man was just

going through the whole thing i was focused on the guests. businesslike combination . maybe i'm not strong enough to hold somebody or. other and so more time to be thinking bold like tunnel t. he sold his bundle to you know what he would stop working so i never thought work was bundled in. so being secret it's a be immortal it came to this new being interspersed with negative people lol both you'll stop watching but looking for.

fishing. russian built a. thing is going to the floodwall some of the ones will never have been so efficient so close to live with double for those with a so. at present in a small a quiet place what it's what i do find an old hall so we're all being wired more fishtank in the things i'm older than. and that's all the sport.

in india. the movie joins the hotel room. the gateway to the grand imperial truly the toast was the. most delicious to see don't need to go. run to the candle was a photo retreat. during the week's top stories on our t.v. u.s. stripped of its prized aaa credit rating for the first time triggering fears of another global financial crisis has investors ready for

a black monday. in nero's own debt woes provoked a turbulent week with european central bankers now agreeing to buy italian and spanish bonds to stop the rot. plus israelis take to the streets as a quarter of a million protesters demand the government drive down the cost of living or hit the brakes. when we go to the republic of south marking three years since the conflict with georgia devastated the region but finally brought recognition. bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news here on r t on friday the financial world was shaken after the u.s. was stripped of its perfect aaa credit rating by standard and poor's for.