August 2008. Five days of the war. 11 years later. Russian journalists are telling about the war in South Ossetia
Each viewer of the Rossiya and TVC television channels knows his face in a helmet with the inscription “press”, his reports are almost always saturated with gunpowder and blood. Evgeny Poddubny, a military journalist:
August 8, 2008 is a day of endless tragedies and quiet hope. Every 10 minutes, my friends and I learned that one of our close friends had died or, on the contrary, had survived.
To fire the city from rocket and barreled artillery, throw tanks and infantry to assault, kill civilians, Russian peacekeepers, Ossetian militias and cynically manipulate public opinion, first talking about a brave operation to restore constitutional order in the region, and then, when the adventure failed, to shout in falsetto about the “Russian aggression”.
Georgian leaders turned out to be petty criminals: vile liars and cowardly killers. Then the Western world gave a very good lesson to us, journalists, they showed that they could lie if circumstances require it, even when this lie provokes terrible crimes.
I am very glad, personally glad that the Russian leadership then decided to carry out an operation to force Georgia to peace. It seems to me: all political adventurers and war criminals should remember August 2008, the punishment follows the crime and there will be no other way for them, I hope this will stop those wishing to repeat the terrible experience of the Georgian aggression.
