History of the conflict

In 1774 Ossetia became a part of the Russian Empire. At that time, it hadn’t been divided into South and North Ossetia yet. In 1801 Georgia also joined the Russian Empire.

After the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, Georgia became independent from Russia. As a result of the Ossetian nation’s genocide (in which, according to different estimates, between 10 and 20 thousand people perished) Georgia annexed the South Ossetian territory. North Ossetia remained part of Russia.

From that moment, the Ossetian nation started its fight for independence. In 1990 the Council of the People’s Deputies of the South Ossetian Autonomous Region proclaimed the South Ossetian Soviet Democratic Republic. The Declaration of the National Sovereignty was adopted.

That is how a new spiral of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict began. Between 1990 and 1992, thousands of peaceful Ossetians were killed. Refugees started fleeing to Russia.

In 1992, 98% of South Ossetia’s population voted for independence of their republic and for reuniting with Russia.

After that, Georgian artillery and combat vehicles shelled the city of Tskhinval.

The armed action ceased when the Dagomys Agreements were signed between Russia and Georgia. The Agreements implied a ceasefire and the formation of a Joined Control Commission for settling the conflict. The Commission included both Georgian and South Ossetian parties and Russia.

On July 14, 1992 three battalions (Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian) of the peacekeeping forces entered the conflict zone.

In 2002, the South Ossetian Parliament adopted a resolution requesting the Russian authorities to include South Ossetia as part of Russia.

On August 8, 2008 President Saakashvili’s regime started shelling the sleeping town of Tskhinval with weapons of mass destruction. On the night of August 8, Russian troops entered South Ossetia. On August 10, they pushed the Georgian aggressors back to the town of Gori.

As a result of this war, 66 Russian peacekeepers and more than 1.600 South Ossetian residents with Russian passports and citizenship were killed.

On August 26, 2008 the Russian Federation recognized the independence of South Ossetia. 

War 08.08.08. The Art of Betrayalâ is one of the first documentary Internet-films. This is the most outspoken film about the war, that started on the day of opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing, the film about the war, in which tens of Russian peacemaker perished as well as hundreds of peaceful Ossetians; it is the film about the war that turned out to be the doping drug for the rating of the republican candidate to the post of the President of the USA John McCain.

The editorial staff of Russia.ru kept an eye on the progress of this war from the very beginning of Georgian invasion in Tskhinval. The camera crew of the TV-channel came into the destroyed republic on the 12th of August for the first time.

This trip resulted in more than 100 footages about the destroyed capital of the South Ossetia, about the burnt villages, dead civilians, about the families left without their houses, about the people, whose relatives are missing.


Russia.ru created a large base of experts, commentators and witnesses of the war crimes of the Georgian army. Finally it was decided to carry out a complete investigation of the events in the Caucasus, and the camera crew of Russia.ru headed by the writer Kirill Benediktov went the the South Ossetia again.


The stories, that were told to the journalists by the witnesses of these events and by prosecutor's office of the Republic, clearly showed that the film about genocide of the Ossetians just can not have any other name but The Art of Betrayalâ

The attack upon Tskhinval was preceded by a range of treacheries. OSCE and other international observers have just ignored the claim of the Ossetian part about the fact that the Georgian army is preparing the base area for the bombardment of Tskhinval and has already taken a strategically important high ground and for several weeks has been building entrenchments, blindages and fire trenches there.

Exactly from these entrenchments fire was delivered to the sleeping city by the Georgian peacemakers wearing the uniform of NATO  although they were the people whose duty was to keep peace within this region, but not to bring deaths. The traitors, the fifth column, turned out to be in the South Ossetia as well. And the most straightforward treachery was the speech of Mihail Saakashvili, who 4 hours before the attack upon Tskhinval calmed down the Ossetian people, persuading them that he doesnt want to set the war off.

The film War 08.08.08. The Art of Betrayal is made up of 40 hours of the video-footage, brought from the South Ossetia by the camera crew, found on the YouTube Web site and other video- portals, sent by the Internet users, or taken from the video recordings of the cell-phones of the dead Georgian soldiers.

For the first time in the history the war has been recorded by the video-cameras of the cell-phones. These recording give the audience the chance to see the attack upon the South Ossetia in the way, the aggressors (who were destroying the houses of the Ossetian people with the cries of joy) saw it.

The uniqueness of these recordings is obvious: the journalists just are not able to film the very thick of the war, the faces of the murderers at the moment when the crime is being committed, the most straightforward and scary video of genocide. All this was recorded by the Georgian military men themselves.

The mission of this film was to show the truth about this war to the huge amount of viewers, to the millions of people in the whole world. It is the film about those people, who set off this massacre, about the fact who backs Mihail Saakashvili, and who received political dividends from the genocide of the Ossetian people and from the western informational chasing aimed at Russia.

In the nearest future the film will be translated into English, Chinese, Spanish, German and other languages and will be available for all the users of the World Wide Web. If someone of our audience wishes to take part in the distribution of this film, if you have the chance to help us, you can put the hyperlink to the film War 08.08.08 in your blog or on your Internet-page.

It is so, because today any people, who are not indifferent to the tragedy of the South Ossetia, can become the participants of unmasking the lies of a range of Western mass media and of politicians, with whose connivance and assistance Georgia was able to attack the sleeping Tskhinval to frighten the whole world by the made up Russian threat

It is so, because the war in the South Ossetia is not to vanish in history, is not to be forgotten and is not to become one the latest historical myths.

It is so, because all the world has to know what happened on the 8th of August, 2008.