Liberal Democratic deputy demands investigation of officials' conduct in August 2008
MOSCOW. Aug 13 (Interfax) - Liberal Democratic deputy Vasily Zhurko has asked the Russian Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Federal Security Service to investigate the conduct of Russian officials in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict of August 2008. He thinks Russia's reaction was late.
"I request an investigation and an evaluation of the conduct of officials in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict of August 2008," says the inquiry sent to Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin, State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika and Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov.
The deputy's press service provided Interfax with an inquiry copy on Monday.
"In my opinion, the late reaction of Russian top-ranking officials and the unpreparedness of the Army led to numerous civilian and military casualties, not to mention huge budgetary expenditures by Russia in the restoration of peace life in South Ossetia, although preparations for the Georgian incursion and the incursion itself were obvious," he said.
"There is an impression that the national administration and the Armed Forces command, who inspect annual parades dedicated to the Great Victory of 1945, forget about the events of June 1941," he said.
"A number of events have taken place - a film has been screened and certain statements have been made. I have paid attention to that and decided to ask a few questions to the authorities for verifying whether it was really so," he said.
"I mean everyone who was making decisions at that moment. That was not just one or two persons. I cannot bring accusations against any particular man," he said.
Seventy-two Russian peacekeepers died and up to 350 soldiers were wounded in the armed conflict in South Ossetia. The Russian budget spent about 30 billion rubles to bring the South Ossetian life back to normal.
A film, "The Lost Day," was posted online last week, ahead of the South Ossetian conflict anniversary. Ex-General Staff Chief Yuri Baluyevsky claimed in that film that the decision to start Georgia's enforcement towards peace came with a delay and that caused additional casualties. He said, for instance, "We lost one day and had big casualties before Putin gave a push to the military."
In turn, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the decision to retaliate the attack was made on time. "Every decision taken back then was taken in due time," he told reporters in Tskhinvali on August 8, 2012.
