Georgian Interior Minister, Vano Merabishvili, said that Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, made “a Christmas present” to Georgia by, as he put it, admitting that Russia was preparing for the war with Georgia.

President Medvedev said in an interview with three main Russian television stations on December 24 that Moscow was preparing for response measures, as Russia suspected that Georgia was getting ready for attacking South Ossetia.

Georgian Foreign Minister, Grigol Vashadze, and other Georgian officials described these remarks by Medvedev as “plea of guilty.”

“Of course Russia was preparing and then carried out aggression against Georgia,” Vano Merabishvili told journalists on December 25. “It is difficult to hide this information. After foreign journalists, including through our assistance, disclosed disinformation disseminated by some so called foreign experts and foreign observers and after the entire world has seen that Russia was getting ready [for aggression against Georgia], Russia simply had to admit it and this is yet another fact that Georgia has become a victim of a pre-planned aggression.”