Citing new documents that have just recently come to light, diplomats are confirming today that the European Union’s report on the August 2008 conflict between Russia and Georgia won’t be publicly released until September. Initially the report was to be released later this month.
Last month EU experts said that the preliminary findings were going to assign much of the blame for the war on Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, surprising considering the EU has officially backed Georgia’s claims since the war and condemned Russia.
Saakashvili ordered the military to shell the South Ossetian capital of Tshkinvali, killing Russian troops and leading to a brief war that destroyed most of Georgia’s military and led South Ossetia and Abkhazia to formally declare independence with Russian backing.
The EU criticized Russia early on, and pressure from several Eastern European member states led the bloc to issue a wide variety of demands to Russia over the conflict. To this day no member of the EU recognizes either South Ossetia or Abkhazia as an independent nation.