Russia hunts witches

Several Russian media outlets have reported that a Russian citizen, Oksana Sevastidi, has been sent to prison for seven years for treason, as she texted her friend shortly before the Russia-Georgia War in August 2008 that she saw a train loaded with military hardware heading to Georgia’s western occupied Abkhazia region.

Sevastidi is a resident of Sochi, in the Krasnodar region of Russia, located on the Black Sea coast near the border between Georgia’s Abkhazia and Russia.

The Krasnodar Regional Court sentenced Sevastidi in March this year.

Another Russian citizen, Ekaterine Kharebava, was also sentenced for spying in 2014 and sent to prison for six years, as she also warned her friend about an alleged threat.

She also saw a train loaded with weapons and texted her Georgian friend in Abkhazia to warn her.

It is interesting that information about these instances of 'espionage' and the imprisonment of the perpetrators have only just been spread in the Russian media.

Russia still claims that Georgia’s provocative actions in the Georgia’s eastern occupied region of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) pushed it to become involved in the military confrontation, which led into losing of 20percent of Georgia’s historic lands and recognising Tskhinvali and Abkhazia as independent republics by Russia.

Russia stresses its motivation to participate in the war was “to protect the people living in Tskhinvali and Abkhazia,” the same justification the Federation gave for its involvement in Ukraine.

With Russia continuing its creeping occupation on Georgian soil, and erecting new so-called border signs and barbed-wire fences on Georgian territory, it still claims it is acting as a peacekeeper.

The fact that Russia arrested its own citizens for treason and 'revealing state secrets' as they warned their loved ones about alleged threats may be one of the most poignant pieces of evidence that Russia was getting ready to trigger a conflict in Georgia and get involved in the war long before the fighting started.

However, it is the responsibility of the international community to acknowledge Moscow as the chief aggressor.