It is difficult for me to talk about the career of Vladimir Putin and his successor at the presidential post as a career of politicians - I am not a political observer, but a military expert. But from a military point of view, all the campaigns that Vladimir Putin led, he won. Dmitry Medvedev also won in South Ossetia - this is a good start for a political career. The wars that these people waged were completely diverse, and different tasks were solved with their help.

From the editorial office. Vladimir Putin, as the head of the country, took place since the events in Dagestan in August 1999. The beginning of the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev - events in South Ossetia. Is it possible to say that these two aggression - each in its own way - determined the agenda of the presidency of Putin and Medvedev? On this subject, RSA talked with the famous journalist Andrei Kolesnikov .

Today, a year after the tragic events in South Ossetia, the question of whether the Pyrrhic Military Victory of Russia in a five-day war against Georgian aggressors was still not lost relevance. Let's try to figure it out.

In August 2008, Russia won another victory, being on the verge of “sliding into a catastrophe” (the term of the famous Russian geopolitics, now the deceased Vadim Tsymbursky)-military, political, international legal.

Russian Journal: In your opinion: the past 10 years indicate that Putin had a vision of his future activity, or his actions as the head of the state were of a reaction to many challenges? If such a performance was, then what did it consist of? If not, what calls have determined his policy? Alexey Kuzmin: Of course, Vladimir Putin had no plan. Rather, its actions can be described as a completely natural reaction to external challenges.

- Gleb Olegovich, as the president of the Effective Politics Foundation, a historian and a person who has devoted more than one year to the analysis of the problems of the state, you probably noticed that every year August in Russia becomes 'black'. Do you think this is an accident or a historical pattern? - We were faced with the problem of August 10 years ago, when one of the types of monitoring was carried out and paid attention to it.

RG: August 8, 2009 is the anniversary of the war in South Ossetia. What has changed in the world after the August events of last year? In my opinion, fundamental changes have occurred in the world. The main change in the world occurred 20 years ago - this is the fall of the Berlin wall, a symbolic act of destruction of a two -pool world and an act, which meant discrediting and eliminating communism as a geopolitical opponent of the Western world.

Today, it is already quite obvious even to those who had previously tried to accuse Russia of the escalation of the conflict around South Ossetia, which was precisely Georgia, the culprit and initiator of this event. All attempts by the Western media to accuse Russia of a certain “aggression” against the small but proud republic of the former USSR are even semantic.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili so strongly wanted to receive support from the Obama administration, which, although he was not even invited to participate in the annual Munich Security Conference , which took place in February of this year, specially visited her to meet with its most important participant, US Vice President Joe Bayden. According to the witnesses of their meetings, the Deputy Obama not only tried to avoid the handshake of Saakashvili, but even avoided looking at him.