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Russian Attack on Georgia "Pre-planned," Says Pentagon

By David McKeeby

In the months leading up to Russia's invasion, top U.S. military officials joined diplomats in sending a clear message to Georgia: resist Moscow's attempts to provoke Georgian military action in South Ossetia or Abkhazia.

"It's clear that Russia's political and military leadership executed a pre-planned operation to forcibly and quickly change the status quo in Georgia," Eric Edelman, under secretary of defense for policy, told the Senate Armed Services Committee September 9.

Edelman, who was accompanied by General John Paxton and General Michael Flynn of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, said the United States will work to help stabilize and reconstruct Georgia.

"We are now at a crossroads," Edelman said. "Russia must decide how it wants to define its future relationship with the international community."

Edelman and Fried strongly rejected recent assertions from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other senior Kremlin officials that the United States had a role in causing the Georgia crisis. In fact, senior Pentagon and State Department officials were in close, regular contact with both Georgian and Russian leaders to appeal for peace as tensions escalated in Georgia's two Moscow-backed separatist regions.

"We were not terribly subtle. We were not indirect. We were quite clear and occasionally blunt," Fried said.

But there were worrying indicators of the approaching conflict, the officials said. They cited the buildup of Russian troops above their usual "peacekeeping" levels, multiple violations of Georgian airspace by Russian warplanes, Russia's downing of Georgian unmanned surveillance drones, and a large-scale Russian military exercise close to the border that rehearsed a scenario similar to its Georgia invasion.

Every step of the way, Edelman said, "Russia was clearly adding to tension in order to provoke a Georgian response."

Nevertheless, Edelman said, top Pentagon officials joined the U.S. State Department in counseling "strategic patience" and urging Georgia to continue to work for peace, despite the Moscow-backed separatists' continued rejection of Georgian peace proposals.

Edelman also criticized Georgia's offensive into South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali, aimed at stopping the separatist militia attacks, which precipitated Russia's August 8 air and ground assault.

"The use of artillery fire and multiple rocket launches into urban areas and into the proximity of Russian peacekeepers was lamentable, and we do not condone that activity," he said. "But Russia used Georgia's ground operation as a pretext for its own offenses."

Once the conflict began, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other senior defense officials appealed to their Georgian and Russian counterparts to stop the conflict. They then turned to President Bush's August 13 order to work with the U.S. Agency for International Development to deliver nearly $40 million in nonmilitary humanitarian aid.

Despite Russian military leaders' assurances to Washington that its aims were limited to containing the conflict in South Ossetia, Russia's subsequent push into Abkhazia and thrusts deep into undisputed Georgian territory suggest a wider strategic agenda to "create facts on the ground," Edelman said. These military moves have since been compounded by Russia's refusal to honor pledges made in a European-brokered cease-fire agreement and Russia's official recognition of both separatist entities as independent states. The recognition has been endorsed so far by only one other country in the world, Nicaragua, as well as the terrorist group Hamas.

Edelman warned that the recognition gesture has little practical value, but may send the wrong message to aspiring separatist movements within Russia.

"What they've done starts to raise questions and precedents inside Russia itself about Chechnya, about Ingushetia, about Tatarstan, Dagestan," Edelman said. "What they have done potentially is very, very dangerous for their own self-interest."

As a sovereign nation, Georgia has a right to defend itself, Edelman said, and the U.S. military has sent an assessment team to help Georgia assess damage and rebuild its security forces, in conjunction with parallel efforts by the recently created NATO-Georgia Council. (See "NATO Strengthens Ties with Georgia ( http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2008/August/20080819160731idybeekcm0.4339105.html ).")

The United States is also reaching out to other nations in the region who have been threatened by Moscow, including Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states. "These countries must know that the United States is with them. And, just as importantly, Russia must know the same," Edelman said.

The Pentagon has suspended bilateral military cooperation with Russia as part of a larger U.S. reassessment of its future relationship with the country, Edelman said. The Defense Department is also helping investigate cyber-attacks on Georgian government and military computers during the conflict and will monitor Russian troop withdrawals.

U.S. officials also urged Russia to reconsider its September 9 announcement that it will maintain 3,800 troops in each separatist region, effectively doubling troop levels prior to the conflict and further complicating Moscow's prospects of repairing its international image any time soon. (See "Georgia Crisis Will Affect U.S.-Russian Relations in Long Term ( http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2008/September/20080909172458idybeekcm0.3110315.html?CP.rss=true ).")

"We hope that on sober reflection, Russia will choose a different path," Edelman said. "But our policy will respond appropriately to Russian actions."

See the prepared statements of Edelman ( http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2008/September/20080910120613eaifas0.5277368.html ) and Fried ( http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2008/September/20080909164653eaifas1.774234e-02.html ).

For more information, see Crisis in Georgia ( http://fpolicy.america.gov/fpolicy/security/georgia2.html ).

Source: U.S. Department of State