Nine years have passed since the Russo-Georgian War of August 2008. Civil.ge uses its archives and other sources to provide a daily recap of the events of the war. We start on August 1, 2008, amid the final stage of pre-war escalation, and will continue up to the occupation of Akhalgori Municipality by the Russian troops on August 16.

August 14:

• Researchers from the Human Rights Watch report “terrifying scenes of destruction” and looting in the Georgian villages, by the Russian-backed Ossetian militias.
   
• Russian troops loot the Georgian military base in Senaki.
   
• Several foreign journalists are robbed throughout the day in the Gori area by the Russian troops and Russian-backed Tskhinvali militias. 
   
• Russian troops in Poti keep destroying the Georgian naval infrastructure.
   
• At 14:00 additional Russian troops enter Gori.
   
• The United Nations agencies and other humanitarian organizations cannot access the former warzone, especially Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia.
   
• At 15:40 Russian soldiers rob several Georgian police officers and take away their car near village Doghlauri, Kareli district. 
   
• Looting by the Russian-backed militias is reported in a number of villages of Gori and Kareli Districts. 
   
• At 17:00 a journalist of the Georgian Public Broadcasting company Tamar Urushadze is wounded by a shot during a live broadcast near Gori. 
   
• Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives in Tbilisi after a visit to Moscow, says Georgia’s territorial integrity “must be preserved.”
   
• Georgian Parliament approves the decision for Georgia to quit the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
   
• U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says regarding the war that Russia wanted “to punish Georgia for daring to try to integrate with the West,” and that Putin wants to reassert the Russian sphere of influence.
   
• President Saakashvili says Russia is blackmailing Georgia through military and diplomatic maneuvering to force it to accept “a Munich-type of deal” – a reference to the 1938 treaty that allowed Nazi Germany to annex part of Czechoslovakia.