TBILISI (EurasiaNet)–Tbilisi on June 4 expressed reserved optimism that an international commission’s upcoming report would shed light on the reasons that led to the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia.
“We hope that overall the eventual report will be objective, and we hope that the report once again will confirm the truth that is known to everyone, which is that last year Russian aggression against Georgia took place,” Parliamentary Speaker David Bakradze told journalists, Maestro television reported.
Nonetheless, Bakradze appears ready to hedge his bets. Not all of the commission’s members make the grade with the Georgian government, he added, without elaboration. “[W]e have put question marks on some experts, who . . . are working with the commission,” Bakradze said.
Georgian State Minister for Territorial Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili charged in February that some of the members are sponsored by Russian energy giant Gazprom. No specific names were given. The group of investigators, headed by Swiss diplomat and former deputy head of the United Nations Observer Mission to Georgia Heidi Tagliavini, is expected to produce its report by the end of July.