Georgia, Russia blame each other for war year ago

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia and Russia on Thursday each pointed the finger at the other as the aggressor on the eve of the first anniversary of their five-day war.

Pro-Western Georgia launched an assault on breakaway South Ossetia on the evening of Aug 7 after days of clashes with separatists and years of tension between Moscow and Tbilisi.

A Russian military counter-strike quickly pushed Georgian government forces out.

A 40-page report released by the Georgian government and a Russian Foreign Ministry statement underscored the conflicting narratives that dominate either side of the Caucasus mountains.

With tension high ahead of the anniversary, European Union monitors observing the ceasefire said they had stepped up patrolling. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the region remained volatile.

Georgia said the war was the "violent climax of policies pursued by Russia against Georgia over many years." Russian armor was already pouring into South Ossetia in the early hours of Aug 7, it said, repeating an accusation Russia has denied.

The report said the Georgian assault on South Ossetia was a "defensive operation" in response to separatist shelling of ethnic Georgian villages and Russian troop movements.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the Georgian assault was "a pre-planned criminal act."

"The Georgian authorities chose to shoot to pieces their country's territorial integrity with Grad (multiple rocket launcher) systems and this put paid to the restoration of inter-ethnic co-existence with neighboring nationalities."

The West condemned Russia's counter-strike as "disproportionate." But it has also faulted Georgia's assault, which rights groups say involved indiscriminate shelling of the rebel capital Tskhinvali.

"THE FIGHT GOES ON"

Diplomats say the assault was a huge error of judgment on the part of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, a staunch ally of then U.S. President George W. Bush.

Russia rolled into Georgia proper, carried out bombing raids, and stamped its authority over South Ossetia and the rebel Black Sea region Abkhazia. Militias followed the Russians, looting and beating Georgian villagers, rights groups say.

Moscow recognized both rebel regions as independent states, and in the process served notice to NATO that Moscow considers the ex-Soviet South Caucasus, a transit route for oil and gas to the West, firmly within its own 'sphere of influence'.

The narratives are reinforced by obedient media in both countries. Pro-government Georgian television stations are broadcasting spots in the lead-up to the anniversary declaring "The Fight Goes On," with war footage of Georgian victims and advancing Russian tanks.

Russia's military presence, Georgian authorities say, is the continuation of a policy of occupation stretching back through the Soviet Union to the Russian empire.

Russia says the war was an indictment of the West's policy toward Georgia, its army trained and equipped by the United States and its government promised membership of NATO over fierce Russian objections.

"The massive arms supplies from abroad in recent years created in the Georgian leadership an illusion of impunity and freedom to act, and engendered the temptation to solve its problems by military means," the foreign ministry said.

Russia this week again accused Washington of re-arming the Georgian "war machine." Strong rhetoric and accusations of mortar and grenade fire on the de facto South Ossetian border have raised fears of renewed hostilities.

(Editing by Richard Balmforth)