Russia: EU report shows Georgia's 'guilt' over August war

(MOSCOW) - An EU report has proved Georgia was guilty of starting a war with Russia in the Caucasus in August last year but contains a number of "ambiguities", the Russian foreign ministry said Wednesday.

In a statement following the release of a report ordered last year by the European Union, which brokered a ceasefire between Russia and Georgia, Moscow indicated it was on the whole satisified with the end result as it proved Tbilisi was guilty of starting the war.

"The report contains a number of ambiguities," the statement said.

"However it cannot overshadow the main conclusion of the report about Tbilisi's guilt for unleashing an aggression against peaceful South Ossetia (and) the complete illegitimacy of Georgia's actions."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's spokeswoman, speaking in a separate briefing, reiterated that Russia welcomed the study's conclusions "relating to who began the war."

"If the commission has recognised that Georgia began first military actions, which the Russian side has said repeatedly and constantly since the beginning of the conflict, we can only welcome this," Natalya Timakova said.

Moscow however took issue with a number of the report's findings, including a notion about what it said was a disproportionate use of force by Russia against its small ex-Soviet neighbor, the foreign ministry said.

The report, the statement added, proved that a number of European countries remained biased against Russia.

"We understand that a number of vague and ambiguous statements mean that approaches of many European Union countries to the August 2008 events and their repercussions remain politicised."

The EU investigating team said Georgia sparked the five-day war with Russia last year by attacking rebel South Ossetia but it also accused Moscow of violating international law.

As a result of war, at least 250 people were killed and some 118,000 others forced from their homes.

Days after the conflict, Russia recognized South Ossetia and another Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia as independent, a move that has so far been followed by only Nicaragua and Venezuela.