Today marks fourth anniversary of August events in South Ossetia

Today marks exactly four years from the date, on which hostilities broke out in South Ossetia, turning into the Georgian-Russian military conflict. Russia and Georgia met the anniversary of those events with mutual accusations of unleashing the military conflict.

On August 8, 2008, the hostilities broke out between Georgia and South Ossetia. Soon, Russia intervened with the conflict. Active hostilities lasted for 5 days, and after that Russia stated that the operation to force Georgia to peace was over. The outcome of the war was Russia's recognition of independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Mikhail Saakashvili, President of Georgia, described as "lawlessness", and Georgia broke off diplomatic relations with Russia.

Russia insists that Georgia acted as an aggressor and that Georgian leaders should be punished for the conflict in the Caucasus. Today, Vladimir Markin, Spokesperson of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), stated that the term of the investigation into the criminal case on the events in South Ossetia in August 2008 was extended till February 8, 2013, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

According to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Russia has been preparing for the events of August 7 for years. "We know what purpose the Kremlin had on August 7, 2008. It was the capture of Tbilisi and change of the Georgia's foreign policy by 180 degrees," Mikhail Saakashvili stated in the evening of August 7 at the Academy of National Defence named after David Agmashenebeli in the city of Gori (Eastern Georgia), the "News-Georgia" reports.