Europe and the U.S. are not the whole world

Russia will not be isolated because it protected its citizens and upheld its peacekeeping mission, the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said. In an interview on German TV, Putin suggested that if Russia had not responded to Georgian aggression, there could have been a tragedy along the scale of what happened in the former Yugoslavia.

“I think a country like Russia, that protected its citizens, and fulfilled its peacekeeping duties, won't be held in isolation, no matter what our partners think within the limits of their bloc. Europe and the U.S. are not the whole world,” he said.

He recalled the Srebrenica massacre, when thousands were killed when Dutch peacekeepers didn't intervene in the Balkan war.

The Prime Minister insisted that the Georgian government should be held responsible for its action.

“Speaking about the Georgian leadership, people who wreck the territorial integrity and national identity of their country with their actions shouldn't be ruling that country, be it big or small. They should resign straight away,” he said.

”Of course, it's up to them, but we all remember the precedents that we have in history. Let's remember how U.S. troops entered Iraq, and what they did with Saddam Hussein for destroying several Shiite villages. Here, ten Ossetian villages were destroyed right out,” Putin told ARD TV.