Medvedev on Monday praised the troops for stopping the "aggressor" in the August 2008 war.
The conflict erupted when Georgian troops tried unsuccessfully to regain control over the Moscow-backed rebel province of South Ossetia, and Russia sent troops that quickly routed the Georgian military.
I noted that three years after the war, people amazingly are prone to blaming Georgia for starting the war.
If I may repeat from an early post on that war:
The ramshackle Russian military, rusting away for two decades now, miraculously put together an invasion of Georgia, flying in paratroopers even from distant bases, within hours of being attacked by Georgia? You seriously believe that version of events?
As for praising the Russian military's performance? That's kind of like praising the Russian military for defeating Finland in 1940. Yeah, the Russian military won in 2008, but the price they paid (obviously far lower than in 1939-1940) surely did not make the Russian military shine.
Don't forget that the Georgians no more started the war in 2008 than Finland started the war in 1939. Russia engineered both, even if the Georgians were rash enough to fall for the trap.
