Russia attacked Western interests in 2008

US political analyst David Smith stated recently at a NATO seminar in Yerevan that Russia had planned to invade Georgia long before it did so. He said that Georgia was not attacked because of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, this was a geopolitical attack on Western interests.

Smith said everything started at least ten years ago when the Russians started introducing Russian passports in the breakaway territories. Military exercises followed. Kosovo recognition and the Bucharest NATO summit decision gave Russia the incentive to respond to the West and it did so, Smith said.

Russian political analyst Aleksey Malashenko from Moscow's Carnegie Foundation Centre said that the conflict is over and there is no way back. Nobody in Russia will say sorry, we were wrong, but Russia will not get involved in another conflict.