Transcript:

Question: Mr Medvedev, what has changed in South Ossetia since your last visit? How much money is Russia prepared to allocate to help South Ossetia and, most importantly, how will the government monitor the use of funds provided to this independent republic, especially since there were many complaints about improper use of such funds by previous leaders?

Dmitry Medvedev: Today is a special day. I believe that the first thing we should do is remember those who fell and bore the brunt of the first strike of the aggression unleashed by the Georgian army. We spoke about this today with the new leaders of the republic and ordinary people. They remember everything and perhaps this is the most important thing if we speak about the emotions that I have when I visit South Ossetia.

As far as changes go, on the one hand, there have not been as many as I would like to see. I believe there should be more, since it’s been a while since the war ended. There have been changes, to be sure. There are new schools. New kindergartens and new houses are being built. However, I believe that the work could go faster. I will not analyse things now, because we are on the territory of an independent state now. This state has its own voters and leaders. Nevertheless, I believe that a certain amount of time has been lost. There’s no drama, though, of course not. This work can be sped up and forces redistributed in a more streamlined manner. The new president and the government are willing to work, I had the chance to see it for myself. The new leaders are very well qualified for this job and are saying the right things, at least for the time being.

It is very important to understand where we are now, because certain things have changed for the better, but in many cases the situation remains unsatisfactory. Roads, for example, haven’t changed much, which is unfortunate. Much more could have been done in fact. We sent the money. We are now conducting a reconciliation and will take appropriate decisions once it’s completed. The Russian side will take decisions, of course. With regard to spending money in South Ossetia, the republic should take its own decisions. We will not interfere with their priorities. Our task is to help and support them as they are rebuilding civilian life in the republic.

Overall, the plans are good. I hope that the new team will work hard to implement them. People haven’t changed: they love Russia. For them, Russia is not just a spot on the map. They are Russian citizens, too. The people remember what our soldiers did for them in 2008, how they helped them survive. The people are thankful to the Russian army and Russia for everything they did for them.

People are grateful to the Russian army for everything it did for Russia. This matters most to me. I value the emotions I feel when I visit South Ossetia and talk to these people. At least for me, personally, that was really important.

I’ve noticed that there are more cars parked outside buildings, which is another good sign. It means that business activity is coming to life even if it is only a beginning. Anything else?

Question: We remember how the construction of the Solnechny and Severny neighbourhoods started. But now construction is stalled. We are told they lack construction materials. What can we do about this? We hear that people could move in by September or by the end of the year.

Dmitry Medvedev: Supply of construction materials is a technical issue and it will certainly be resolved. I’ve just instructed the Minister of Regional Development to find out what’s going on. Our Ossetian partners claim they have a problem supplying some types of materials. They admit that the old procedure doesn’t work well. We’ll sort this out. My instruction was to establish a seamless mechanism. Unfortunately, that hasn’t existed before. What should it be? We need direct and consistent communication between the services and public offices in South Ossetia and Russia. Moreover, we have agreed to do a full audit within the next two weeks. We’ll see what has been done in terms of economic and social support. After that we can start a new phase in developing socio-economic cooperation. This is the most important part for me as the prime minister.

Question: Mr Medvedev, I have a question that might be uncomfortable for you. But you probably know that recently a video of unknown origin went viral that features a number of former high-ranking military officers, particularly Mr Baluyevsky, who accused you of hesitating when Georgia attacked South Ossetia. He says you hesitated for 24 hours and only when Mr Putin interfered did Russia get involved in the conflict. What can you say about this?

Dmitry Medvedev: I haven’t seen the video but I’ve read reviews and seen some extracts online. I don’t know who produced it or ordered the production. Indeed, the generals in the video had already resigned or were still in service when the conflict in South Ossetia started.

It’s hard for me to comment on what motivated them to give an interview. I personally didn’t hear anything outrageous except for maybe a few comments by the former Chief of the General Staff, a major military strategist, who had generally served in the Arbat Military District [jocular name for the Defence Ministry, which has premises in the Arbat, Moscow’s central district – Ed.]  but had been transferred by me from the General Staff to the Security Council before the conflict. For whatever reason, while he still served on the Security Council, he didn’t comment on this issue, but as soon as he resigned he felt the urge to speak out.

What can I say in this regard? The decisions that were necessary were taken exactly at the right moment, considering those decisions concerned a foreign state, a part of Georgia until August 26. Yes, we had relations with both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but we advocated reuniting these territories although we knew it was almost impossible. Therefore, those decisions could have been taken only in case of direct aggression against Russian nationals and Russian peacemakers, which happened in the early hours of August 8. I can repeat once more although I have said it many times before, but people seem to forget that I made my decision two and a half hours after the Georgian army attacked. Not sooner, but not later because both would have been wrong. The decision was to send Russian armed forces to – I stress – a foreign territory.

I was surprised to hear comments on how long it took me to make that decision. That’s simply a lie. I decided on the missile attack at four in the morning. Those who say otherwise either have no idea of the actual turn of events or distort them on purpose even if they were in the service at that particular time.

I have already commented on my consultations with my colleagues, with the Minister of Defence. Here they are. Such decisions can only be made by one person and I was that person at that moment as a commander-in-chief and president. Any consultations on such issues are out of question. Regarding my talking to Mr Putin, he was at the Olympic Games in Beijing at the time and we had a chance to speak confidentially only on August 8.

The point is not who called who and when, but when was the right time to make the decisions. And I can tell you with all confidence that the decision to react with force in that particular situation in South Ossetia was made by me and the Russian Armed Forces exactly at the right moment. Otherwise, I have to admit, we wouldn’t have been able to meet the challenge as we did in five days. We met that challenge with minimal cost. If the decision had been made later the situation could have turned out completely different.

Speaking about the preconditions, I can be straight. For the previous 20 years, there had been a conflict smouldering, a difficult civil tension between parts of this state and these ethnicities. Nothing really changed in 1992, 1995 or in 2006. The tension was growing and we could feel it. That’s why we tried to help to settle the conflict. Russia was a member of a trilateral commission that included Russia, Ossetia and Georgia. That was the reason for our peacekeeping mission in the area. Unfortunately, Mr Saakashvili was bold enough to organise an attack. It’s very sad because, as I said, by doing so he cut off a large part of his country and basically tore his motherland to pieces.

This is what I can say about the video you mentioned. I’m very sorry that people are so forgetful, I mean those people who were in the service at the time.