russian-georgian war 03 aug 2008

03/08/08 - 1 year later

August 3, 2009

In the morning of August 3, 2008, Nikolay Pankov – Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Anatoly Khrulev – Deputy Head of Main Intelligence Directorate and Commander of the 58th Army arrived to Tskhinvali, where they conducted a Security Council of South Ossetia with participation of military and political administration of South Ossetia, Marat Kulakhmetov – commander of the mixed peacekeeping forces and Konstantin Friev – commander of the Ossetian peacekeeping battalion. Georgian sources assert that, the aim of the meeting was to specify the details of the activity plan of sub-units of the 58th Army. At the same hours, in several hundred kilometers from Tskhinvali – in Sukhumi – the meeting of the Security Council of Abkhazia was conducted.

On the same day, August 3, in Northern Caucasus mobilization of “volunteers” and Cossack started. As Viktor Vodolacki – the supreme ataman of the union of Cossack troops in Russia and foreign countries and vice-governor of Rostov Region explained, mobilization of volunteers was carried out “centralized through recruiting stations in regional military registration and enlistment offices” of Northern Caucasus regions. Most of the volunteers were added to the 19th motorized infantry division of North-Caucasian military district and to the South Ossetian peacekeeping battalion, the rest made contracts directly with the Ministry of Defense of South Ossetia (its existence was also illegal according to Dagomys treaty). First 300 mercenaries crossed the state border between Russian and Georgia and on the following day were in South Ossetia.