Russia's Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, who served as Russia's president in 2008, talked about the Russia-Georgia war in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

According to him, European leaders were well aware that Russia was not the initiator of the war and there was talk of an attack by the Georgian leadership.

"As I understand it, both Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy were well aware that we were not the initiators of all these events, they were talking about an attack by the Georgian leadership, or rather, a provocation that was made by the former Georgian President in July and early August 2008, after Americans advised him to do so, for which he was then punished. However, subsequent events developed in such a way that I had to make a decision not only to use force, to conduct a special military operation, but also to recognize these two parts of Georgia as subjects of international law," Medvedev said.