my name is natalia. yes i'm russian my husband loves us if it's a said to him. we came here to south as dirty as from russia it's been four years since we moved here i don't regret a. pushed me by the city of sin falls was devastated by the two thousand eight hundred. there was debris everywhere you looked there were burnt trees. it was a horrible sight. i'm already thinking of settling down here.

sincerest of all i can not enjoy the climate is definitely. i love this idea for its hospitality for its mountains for its proud people. who think he. will push my work around the clock on the evidence from the seventh of august until the eleventh. five days without a break we were terrified. but we also calls on the phone we carried the

injured under fire and that was all right. but when they started shooting machine guns and mortars it was more difficult. the georgians were already there at the hospital they started attacking. they fired grad multiple rocket so that left a huge hole in the build. we ran through the hole and saw george an armored car outside. i crawled in and took a machine gun. we carried machine guns with us when i went on course. we were on duty for twenty four hours mostly man of course but the worst some woman film editors to. mooch on the seventh we decided to get some rest and i left my deputy in my place the regular shift and driver were on duty i went home. i wasn't

going to be what the product of me was just a ceasefire well what if so i suggest immediate negotiations and it will work i confirm what i said three years ago to grow. unlimited autonomy and self governance to look at something. and if you know georgian television was broadcasting psych i should release message about this peace initiative literally every thirty minutes everyone involved believed him he's the president after all. little all of that turns thirty two in july and in august he was killed over his in the sittin here we did our last time we talked was on the evening of the seventh during saakashvili speech i'd come down a bit when he called i said can't you take a break for

a few days there lympics or go no and maybe they won't do anything but he'll have to be tellin sat alone now what are you talking about you have no idea there is no end to george's military vehicles. what are they for do they just want to show us their strength is one of the eve of the eighth of august the minister of defense sent him to oversee the southern border and provide coordinates here watch them approaching the border he's so how many vehicles they had she knew what was coming . down he was wounded in the chest by a shell fragment bleeding heavily he managed to send a message saying he'd been detected by the enemy. before you and they started firing grad rockets after eleven thirty pm right beside my house it was terrible everything was burning it sounded like

a thunderstorm it was all shaking as we found out later the first wave of rockets took out all our television broadcasts. out of the city was on fire nobody knew what was happening it was the first time they'd fired grad rockets because they used to fire missiles before one or two but this time it was completely different. in the morning we were all in the underground shelter as. you know what to do next there was no communication only tanks all around us we came out to find georgian democracy in our streets. or push and blow if they had developed almost like a computer game that was the impression from the us they were going to course when they started shooting i knew i had to find shelter behind our walls. so we did it

was the most interesting thing is that we had our staff on the second floor. we opened an extra exit there was a post made video of the georgian infantry went through. the floor above us occupied by soldiers with the city's electricity had been cut off for the substation to be blown up the night before those we kept working it was crucial for us that we had our work and we were side by side with the soldiers and the government we were in the right place. and this summer there was a bathroom we have water and course no one wanted to eat because of nervous tension i lost five kilograms. you know. injured us the russian troops entered the city on the eleventh after that our girls started to come back if they cleared out the debris. and we were already

on air on the fourteenth. so i'm going to tell you the truth all our lives have been postponed for the past twenty years of the what is what. we had put our wishes off for the future we told ourselves that in time russia would recognize our state maybe even the us would eventually do the same. of others and then we'd live happily we don't have a seaside and visit western countries we just can't do it now if we were happy to wake up in the morning and know that our relatives were safe and none of our friends were dead and that was our greatest joy back then. at the ball now we can live freely as we can feel the breath of freedom and certainly we have much more to be happy about now congratulations everyone. of course we learned a lot of terrible things a lot of sad stories. one mother and daughter had

a gas tank hit near their house when a shell hit it and everything went up in flames the idea was the mother tried to cover her daughter with her own body. they were both badly burned. the daughter died on the second day but her mother never knew about it she went blind and after two weeks in a coma she died too but you know she never knew that her daughter had died. soon or were my son was thirty seven. my daughter was meant team my son was sixteen . were born here he didn't get flown or knew he was still in the city and tanks were going in his direction where our movie fired point blank at his car. blew up he had a lot or he just flew into the. street. it all happened there. they were shooting. at my family. and i was left alone and to anybody my

son wasn't driving an armored car i wasn't even military and what were they doing there were children inside not fighters. they were killed instantly real desert i looked and saw that they had fallen and. i didn't know what to do. the infantry followed the tanks or i came and told kerosene on the bodies and burned them. i had nothing left to bury but their ashes. it was terrible. the truth was to blame i don't know. what were our children guilty of. i don't know.

perhaps if i hadn't let them go. and still be alive now. how could i know the georgians were already on the city. they could have survived like i did and that sela those knew i couldn't see how i could go on living and i still not no. she was pregnant at the time. in two thousand and nine she gave birth to a baby. my grandson. i was on the brink of taking my own life what else could i live for. such as for now it was born exactly nine months after the conflict i didn't even know i was pregnant. your film i didn't care. i didn't even want to fund what would happen to him in fifteen years would he be killed too. rather startled i live for my grandson.

he's the only joy in my life is true i have no wish for a better life who. i just want to bring up my grandson for as long as i can do nothing else trusts me of like a living coke's will. i believe in god. he gave me my son. god gave me strength. once i said to a believer i said to her there's no board for simple worker is wiser than the god you praise so much. who he asked why did i speak against god. i said that when a farmer grows cold the potatoes he looks at the seeds and cuts away the bad ones in the autumn he gets a good harvest. the farmer destroys the beautiful but he useless seeds. bulletins and criminals live longer than good people. the religious man replied. god does the

same thing. he takes the good seeds when he doesn't want the bad ones in the world . that. young not in the body i sell wooden spoons an axe show spear in the market. is the we. and people are taking a rest by large to come here and look around. i like to talk to people. who takes my mind off my grief but i turn very much money here. but you know what i thought. they can't live without me there they needed me here so how can they called now on their own. through now i hate all georgians. be my enemies. always. i'm not angry god will forgive them. every sunday i go to church to pray for my children and for those who

kill them. perhaps they want to be blamed perhaps they were just ordered to kill you through the least god will forgive them. it's. the interview.

explains the question really my colleagues and i will never shake mr saakashvili as hanscom i consider him a war criminal. right

to see. first strike. and i think the church. can still. be in the. us and we had the situation someone had been shot the night before there was a heated discussion everyone was saying kill all georgians i said showtime totally

our engineers george and do we shoot him to my feet he knew they said what's he got to do with it. could be true you see there are different attitudes to georgians with but the group. they've lived with us all these years. in the cellars and started with us i think georgians are much closer to us. who got away. but i don't think that there were some georgians here during the war hiding in the cellars well yes in your houses cellar yes there were seven of them we didn't hurt them we fed them first and then we ate. as they say don't kick a man while he's down. why not make friends. and. it's only the politicians who wage wars not ordinary people but it's a sensitive question of course we're afraid what guarantee is there that future

georgian governments won't come for say. how many times have they massacred the people three times that's why they do national community should recognize selfless a.t.'s as an independent state that would give some protection. we are spared the booming now but it's still a comfortable. it. was one of the most beautiful in this lots of grows as we had rows of everyone had roses we have been through so much i was born and raised on the street any one of us could have left straight away but we knew that our first duty was to defend our homeland and we did but that's why nobody from always treat left. to. use everyone who has lived in our city or for the last twenty years has loved.

the fact that they stayed helped keep our country together you know at the heart of it of course is love for the law we're going to love for setting love for the come . dreamer regardless of nationality is a risk with your concern mr. we used to live there are local and not far from san vall. but i missile hit our house during the georgian war in one thousand nine hundred two if we had nowhere to live so we came here to this house was deserted. from what we have lived here ever since. it's been twenty years now. yes my name is layla i must say ten i have got five children. in

my grandchildren come to visit me this is my eldest grandson dive eat he's eight. soon i'll have two more grandchildren. though of course they help me with feeding the animals for example mama feeding chickens but giving the culms hey you will live on what we can grow ourselves. with we've got a cow and we sell cheese and potatoes we grow a lot of potatoes yes and we make butter and sell me too. and it's hard living here a long winter lots of snow no roads here. there was no electricity until a couple of months ago. there's no one around there's one village but it's a long way away. we've got used to it. we live in s.a.t.'s and we love it everyone loves his homeland right.

it's good there's no war but we were terrified when the fighting broke out the border was so close to her the shooting. you can easily see two. from here. of course. it's peaceful here now. so whatever a man considers to be a sacred place he should go there with a pure heart it's a sanctuary. anywhere in the universe as though it was sacred. everywhere will become sacred to him.

this was about you there are so many wonderful places you can come here to rest to enjoy and to pray. it'll be better for you if you walk very high than two thousand meters on there's no real close. vishy people here believe that three pies is given as a tribute symbolizes the trinity of the same with three candles on fire. they sacrifice a lamb to on god's blessing. they want to experience the spirit of this place the power of the sanctuary. and bad. the majority of us said he is now we are all christians. but the old and original a city and religion itself while i goes back to before christian times you know holding the place where it now is a pretty christian sanctuary. and many of the holidays and celebrations we have

today date back to way before christianity did but if some of the old pagan knowledge is mystical. nature. and this knowledge is something that makes people stronger i believe that on more than one occasion of my escapes death thanks to my prayers at the tribal sanctuary. not once did i think that i wouldn't survive but i came out of it completely untouched if you go to very few people came here between nine hundred eighty nine and two thousand and eight one of the conflict with georgia got in the way it should be there was no opportunity for them to travel the long distance to come here. now that we've had peace into two thousand and eight places reviving and coming back to normal life goes on it never stops it will go on. and. that lead to lord x. to make things better for us. we put ourselves in god's hands that's good if you're

. i was born in a smaller city in village so i'm a native of this republic i graduated from the teaching university the physics and mathematics department and i went on to work in a school. since april twenty eighth well i've been the president of the republic of south ossetia that was through the free will of our people. come on atlanta is next on the list where you refuse my spend almost all my life and suffer. so that's why i'm so familiar with all the problems of people who've lived through. the house finished. are you

living somewhere else the roof still hasn't been finished. and the roof not finished. so you could you make a measure that is. see if you are in a cultural destruction that went on for several years our primary goal is to restore the damage and build new houses what. people need normal living conditions we. believe there should be should have a chance to study. or to school go to a movie to the fear. that it will but tell the poor. fool they deserve the opportunity to spend their leisure time in the same way as anybody else in the twenty first century.

when they say i'm democratic. which is the much involvement but we must have an open society. yet you just briefings that don't make gold always grown to three poise and three compounds feel guests. i commend you all to go to almighty and let him always help. me. please come in. mr de mille i'm so grateful to you. i'm very pleased to see that our people are so positive about building and. getting our country's statehood. well you got some that's the most yeah i always like to keep in touch with the people. mr to bill of. course i wish you

a very long life of coke asian and siberian good health. but please use your last term of office. to bring together the two a set is then you will go down in history as the man who united north and south assert within the borders of russia. and what's left for the presidency. this calls for a town. i mean down to earth man and i want to try to live my life amongst the people to live with dignity. but i decided i would live modestly with the same conditions as the people of our country. but the devil you know you. run but i'm certainly not boasting but i do believe that on the

mount of modest means. i intend to stay this way until the end of my presidential term. we're celebrating the fifth anniversary of the end of the war the august war of two thousand and eight if we've been building a new state for the past five years five years of peace that's already reason for celebration which is that as we can build houses and travel freely around the republic the roads are open and we're no longer afraid for chilled. and slights we know that they will grow up without gunfire without power being cut off or roads blogs they won't hear about friends and family being killed. here we didn't expect to live through five years of such peace and quiet. we

hope it lasts forever little slippage.

i would rather ask questions for people and businesses of our instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why i can find my show larry king now right here on r.g.p. question more. most of these voices the couple of the law for violence or thefts. but we drove the window climbed in and tried to start it with the dump we pushed it a little way here we were drunk. and soon we were you're an alcoholic nearly all of them are homeless orphans with no money or relatives. or you may go without me your school for a moment but there it felt like i was back to the street hooting and you're going to beat me up at any moment of what will be yours i turned my back i couldn't help wondering about my safety love a good l. of is an award and he's there doubt the father you could say that's love

a race is us he makes normal people out of ugly duckling. today. these are the.