| Prelude to the Russo-Georgian War | |||||||
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| Part of 2006-2008 Georgia-Russia diplomatic crisis Georgian-Abkhaz conflict Georgian-Ossetian conflict | |||||||
 Map of Georgia and its conflict zones prior to the Russo-Georgian war | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Georgia |
 Russia Abkhazia South Ossetia | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Mikheil Saakashvili Vano Merabishvili Davit Kezerashvili Davit Bakradze Eka Tkeshelashvili |
Vladimir Putin Dmitry Medvedev Sergey Lavrov Anatoly Serdyukov Sergey Bagapsh Mirab Kishmaria Eduard Kokoity Vasily Lunev | ||||||
The prelude to the Russo-Georgian War is the series of events, including diplomatic tensions, clashes, and skirmishes, that directly preceded the August 2008 war between Georgia and the Russian Federation. Though tensions had existed between the two countries for years and more intensively since the Rose Revolution, the diplomatic crisis increased significantly in the spring of 2008, namely after Western powers recognized the independence of Kosovo in February and following Georgian attempts to gain a NATO Membership Action Plan at the 2008 Bucharest Summit; and while the eventual war saw a full-scale invasion of Georgia by Russia, the clashes that led up to it were concentrated in the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two separatist Georgian regions that received considerable Russian support over the years.
In the first months of 2008 Moscow took a series of steps that solidified its presence in Abkhazia by lifting its embargo on the region on 6 March and establishing official ties with both it and South Ossetia on 16 April. During this time, Georgia reported an increase in military buildup in the secessionist republic, in response to which it launched a drone reconnaissance program over Abkhazia to document what it alleged were Russian troop movements. The downing of a Georgian drone by a Russian military jet on 20 April was followed by a unilateral decision by Russia to increase the size of its peacekeeping force in the region and the deployment of Railway Troops at the end of May to repair parts of a strategic railroad in Abkhazia. The arrival of railway troops was followed by a series of explosions throughout Abkhazia that Tbilisi claimed to have been part of a campaign to justify the presence of Russian peacekeepers. These explosions included a deadly blast targeting separatist officials and civilians on 6 July.
Until the end of June much of the conflict between Russia and Georgia was concentrated in Abkhazia, as were international efforts to negotiate a peace settlement. Among the latter were the Hadley-Bryza Plan which saw the Bush administration attempt to negotiate an end to the conflict between Tbilisi and Sokhumi and the Steinmeier Plan, designed by Germany to postpone debates on the political status of Abkhazia while encouraging economic partnership and trust-building measures between the two. In both cases, as well as in other, less important efforts by the European Union and the OSCE, the potential deals failed as Russian-backed Abkhaz separatists refused to reach a compromise before a complete Georgian withdrawal from the Kodori Valley, the last Georgian-held stronghold in Abkhazia and location of several clashes in previous years, including the Achamkhara incident in July 2008.
In early July the theater had moved to South Ossetia, where skirmishes between Ossetian militias and Georgian troops turned deadly on 3 July following the attempted assassination of pro-Georgian South Ossetian leader Dmitry Sanakoyev. The International Independent Fact-Checking Mission on the Conflict in Georgia has described the events of July and early August as "low-intensity warfare". International concerns for an impending war increased as Russia held the Kavkaz-2008 military exercises in the North Caucasus, involving tens of thousands of troops training for an intervention in what some described as being Georgia. By the end of July, clashes between Georgian and South Ossetian positions in Tskhinvali and neighboring villages became daily by the end of July, only to become increasingly violent in August. On 7 August, the day when Georgia accuses Russia of having brought into South Ossetia several troops outside of its peacekeeping capacity, a series of clashes killed both Georgian and South Ossetian troops, peacekeepers, and civilians. Despite a number of unilateral ceasefires declared that day by Georgia, violence continued and culminated with the launch of a Georgian operation into Tskhinvali, usually seen as the start of the war.
Experts and governments have come at odds over which side to blame for the escalation of tensions during the months that led to the war. Tbilisi and many of its partners have accused Russia of purposely preventing conflict resolution and organizing provocations to destabilize an already fragile situation on the ground, while Moscow and the separatist governments have claimed that the Georgian government organized a series of false-flag operations to justify a military solution to the frozen conflicts.