Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Security MP Givi Targamadze said at a news briefing on August 24 that “Russia was ready for large-scale, direct military intervention” in the South Ossetian conflict and alleged that “aggression [by Russia] seems to be inevitable.”

“Up to 40 combat helicopters, around 80 infantry combat and armored vehicles, as well as a squad of stormtroopers were mobilized in Russia’s North Ossetia near the Roki tunnel [which links breakaway South Ossetian with North Ossetia] in combat readiness, ready to enter into Georgia,” Givi Targamadze said.

He presented footage, allegedly shot in North Ossetia near the Georgian border, showing Russian soldiers and military hardware. MP Targamadze said that the Russian troops were stationed in the village of Gizel, North Ossetia, as well as in the village of Oktiabrsk, also in North Ossetia.

“These forces mobilized three hours after the Georgian troops captured strategic heights in South Ossetia [on August 19]. If not for President Saakashvili’s order to pull out extra troops from South Ossetia and hand over strategic heights to the joint peacekeeping troops, Russia was ready to send the units of its army and directly intervene in the conflict,” MP Givi Targamadze told reporters.

“This footage was obtained by the Georgian side as a result of work by different security structures, including our [Parliamentary] Committee [for Defense and Security],” MP Targamadze said.

“So we can assume that the Georgian armed forces must be ready to repel Russia’s aggression, which, as it seems, is inevitable. We have a good example in Chechnya that it is quite possible to defeat the Russian army… the Georgian army will be ready to repel a Russian attack soon” he added.