The release of a much anticipated EU-commissioned report into the causes of the Russian-Georgian war of August 2008 predictably spread the blame for the conflict around. Georgia got its share of the blame, but the text of the report is devastating to Russia's narrative of the conflict.
Assisted by a small army of experts, Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini has spent close to a year investigating the origins of a small war that shocked Europe, but that was largely forgotten in the midst of the global economic crisis that succeeded it. The 40-page report – with a thousand pages of appendices – will certainly be the subject of great debate and controversy. Predictably, both sides have claimed that it vindicates their version of events. Yet anyone who bothers to read of the text of the report will find that the commission apportions an overwhelming part of the responsibility of the conflict on the Russian government. In fact, it rejects practically every item in the Russian narrative of the conflict.
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