Medvedev says Georgian assault on rebel region akin to 9/11 (Extra)

Sep 12, 2008, 13:00 GMT

Moscow - President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday compared 9/11 with the trigger for last month's war with Georgia, a day after the United States commemorated those who died in the 2001 terrorist attacks.

'The world after August 8 changed and it has occurred to me that to Russia August 8 is the same as September 11 to the United States. In any case, this date has definitively changed the Russian reality,' Medvedev said in a discussion group with Western foreign policy experts on Friday.

'The world has learned many useful lessons from September 11, and I would like that from (the events of) August 8 the world learned a lesson,' Medvedev was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.

On August 8, Russian armed forces entered Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, leading to full-scale war.

Moscow says it was forced to intervene to halt a 'genocide' of the Osset people by Georgian forces, who shelled the separatist capital of Tskhinvali in a surge to retake the self-governed region.

Russia has been ostracized by the West for its continuing occupation of Georgian territory and for redrawnig the map by recognizing Georgia's two rebel territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.