Ryan Grist

Dr.Ryan Grist is a former British Army Captain who was in charge of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitors in Georgia during the breakout of the 2008 South Ossetia war. He is a veteran of military and diplomatic missions from Northern Ireland to Bosnia,the Middle East, Kosovo,and Moldova. His comments had a major effect on the international opinion of the war.

OSCE monitor

On the night war broke out, Grist was the senior OSCE official in Georgia. He was in charge of unarmed monitors who became trapped by the fighting. He successfully coordinated the evacuation of these observers, and based on their observations, briefed European Union diplomats in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, with his assessment of the conflict.

Briefings on the 2008 South Ossetia war

In his briefing Mr. Grist concluded that, before the Russian bombardment began, "Georgian rockets and artillery were hitting civilian areas in the breakaway region of South Ossetia every 15 or 20 seconds". According to Mr. Grist, it was Georgia that launched the first military strikes against Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. Georgian authorities later accused Grist of working for the Russian intelligence service.

"It was clear to me that the Georgian attack was completely indiscriminate and disproportionate to any, if indeed there had been any, provocation,” Grist said. “The attack was clearly, in my mind, an indiscriminate attack on the town, as a town."

Mr. Grist's views were echoed and confirmed by another senior OSCE official, Stephen Young, a former Royal Air Force Wing Commander.

Grist has accused the OSCE of failing to warn that this summer's Russia-Georgia conflict was looming. He was particularly critical of the Head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia, Ambassador Terhi Hakala (who was on holiday in Finland at the time of the conflict), for her reluctance to take a firm position regarding the dangerous build up of Georgian military forces around South Ossetia in the weeks before the conflict, the use of sniper attacks into South Ossetia by Georgian forces, and the use of indirect fire weapons by Georgia. According to the BBC, he had warned of Georgia's military activity and build up of forces south of Tskhinvali before the Georgian move into the South Ossetia region. He said it was an "absolute failure" that reports were not passed on by bosses, most of whom were on summer vacation.

On August 7, Hakala, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia (in Finland at the time) had told the OSCE chairman Alexander Stubb, that the situation was dangerous, but that it was not a problem. At 11:30 p.m on August 7, Georgia began a major artillery assault on Tskhinvali. It was followed by a ground invasion in the early hours of August 8 and Russian forces responded later that day. Major warfare lasted for five days.

Criticism

Georgia, and some Western diplomats in Tbilisi later questioned Grist's objectivity. Referring to OSCE monitors accounts from Tskhinvali, Giga Bokeria, Georgia's deputy foreign minister said, "That information, I don't know what it is and how it is confirmed."

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) claimed that in an interview Grist acknowledged he crossed through Russian lines without authorization on his own initiative to determine the facts, which ultimately cost him his OSCE job. He resigned from the OSCE immediately after the war. WSJ adds Grist remains "scathing" about Georgian actions before and during the war, but says that some of his comments have been overinterpreted and quotes Grist saying "I have never said there was no provocation by the South Ossetians." "What I have said is that the response from the Georgian authorities was absolutely disproportionate," said Mr. Grist.