MOSCOW. Aug 8 (Interfax) - The U.S. Department of State unofficially blamed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili for the Georgia-South Ossetia war of August 2008, after which he "slipped the leash," according to Russian Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology, and Transport Sergei Ivanov, who was the deputy prime minister supervising the defense sector in 2008 and the defense minister before that.
"Moscow did everything it could to prevent the war from happening. But I believe any impartial observer understands that Moscow was not the cause of the conflict. This was another reckless move by Saakashvili. Subsequent events, including the recognition of independent Abkhazia and South Ossetia, showed that all Western leaders knew deep down who was responsible for that situation and why it happened," Ivanov told the newspaper Kommersant in an interview published on Wednesday.
"They reacted, hollered for a while, pardon my mauvais ton, but quickly toned it down. It was because they realized that their creature and satellite, Saakashvili, had broken every promise and crossed the red line," Ivanov said.
According to Ivanov, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told him privately that the Americans had nothing to do with the events of August 2008 and that they were not behind the attack.
"Of course, she admitted that it was Saakashvili's initiative and that he was responsible for the war. But she did so unofficially, in private, and not for the record. She is a smart woman. But she actually admitted in a private conversation that Saakashvili had slipped the leash," Ivanov said.