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'Kremlin lied about attacks' Georgia says as EU releases war report

Georgia launched a pre-emptive strike yesterday on a European Union report that is expected to criticise its role in last year’s war with Russia over South Ossetia.

Denying that a dozen Russian peacekeeping troops were killed in South Ossetia during an assault by Georgian forces, the Government in Tbilisi released evidence submitted to the EU commission investigating the war’s causes in order to get its side of the story heard first. It accused the Kremlin of spreading “patently false information about fictitious attacks on Russian peacekeepers”.

The Georgian documents continue: “These lies, spread by the Russian-backed propaganda efforts, were used by Russia to legitimise its military aggression against the rest of Georgia’s territory.”

The nine-month inquiry, led by the Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, is expected to blame both Georgia and Russia for the fighting over the breakaway region in August last year. The report is due to be published today.

Read entire article at Times (UK)