European Commission admits that South-Ossetian conflict was triggered by Georgia

Eneco Landaburu, head of the General Directorate of the European Commission for Foreign Contacts, has agreed that the conflict in South Ossetia was initiated by Georgia. This was stated today by Nikolai Kobrinets, Russia's permanent representative at the European Union.

We remind you that Javier Solana, Supreme EU Commissioner for Foreign Policy and Security, arrives today to Georgia for opening the monitoring in the Republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Mr Kobrinets said that Mr Landaburu recognized the fact that it was Georgia who had unleashed the conflict in South Ossetia in the course of the debates on RF-EU relations, held at Belgium's permanent mission at the EU in Brussels.

"Having expressed the European Commission's criticism of Russia's military operation in South Ossetia and subsequent recognition by Moscow of this region's and Abkhazia's independence, Eneco Landaburu said that on his part he had earlier warned about the danger of the so-called 'Kosovo precedent'," the RIA "Novosti" quotes Nikolai Kobrinets as saying.