MOSCOW — Georgia's artillery barrage against the breakaway republic of South Ossetia sparked last year's brief but bloody war with Russia, according to a long-anticipated investigation whose findings were released Wednesday.
But the independent report commissioned by the European Union also blames Russia for provoking the conflict and escalating the fighting beyond "the reasonable limits."
"There is no way to assign overall responsibility for the conflict to one side alone," the report concludes.
Months of exhaustive investigation appear to have done little to change the general understanding of the chain of events, and the findings leave a public relations battle for the higher moral ground largely unresolved. Both Russia and Georgia crowed that the report backed up their own narratives of the conflict.
The Kremlin was quick to hail the finding that Georgia's attack "marked the beginning" of the war. "We can only welcome this conclusion," a spokeswoman said.
The Georgian government said the EU investigation concluded "that Russia invaded Georgia; Georgia never attacked Russia or any other country."
"The report confirms that Russia committed an act of aggression against a sovereign state," it said in a statement.
The bitterly debated question of who started the war has loomed over the region for a year.
The Georgian government said it attacked South Ossetia in response to an onslaught of Russian forces.
Moscow, which had peacekeepers based in the separatist republic, said additional troops were sent to South Ossetia and then deep into Georgia to defend against a Georgian operation already underway.
The EU report is carefully couched, saying that the Georgian shelling of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, on Aug. 7, 2008, started the fighting and could not be justified under international law. But the report also criticizes Russia for meddling in Georgia's affairs and waging a war that "went far beyond the reasonable limits of defense."
"Any explanation of the origins of the conflict cannot focus solely on the artillery attack on Tskhinvali," says the report, written by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini. "It must take into account years of provocation, mutual accusations, military and political threats and acts of violence."
'It's still going on'
