Occupied territories of Georgia
In April 2013, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said after meeting with his Georgian counterpart Maia Panjikidze that Russia respected only a state "that is larger" and therefore the Czech Republic could not mediate between Russia and Georgia. As for Georgia’s future with regard to the occupied territories, the Czech Foreign Minister said Georgia should maintain contacts with them. "It is difficult when your territories are occupied, but sometimes you have to wait for years, even decades before the window of possibilities will be opened for you. I do not know when that time will come, but it will necessarily come", he said.
Timeline of the Russo-Georgian War
Alexander Lomaya, Secretary of National Security Council of Georgia, had said conflict began because Russia aimed to "thwart its neighbors’ movement toward Western society and Western values", adding "If the world is not able to stop Russia here, then Russian tanks and Russian paratroopers can appear in every European capital." Georgian officials admitted that Russian reaction surprised them. "The New York Times" stated that Russia "appeared determined to occupy both South Ossetia and Abkhazia." "The New York Times" reported that Georgian President Saakashvili had said that Georgia was in a state of war and Russia planned to occupy strategic economic infrastructure and to depose his government. However, when Anatoly Nogovitsyn, colonel general in the Russian Ministry of Defense, was asked whether Russia was in a state of war, he replied that was not the case. Georgian health minister had said that Georgian casualties were more than 80, 40 of which were civilians killed in the bombing of Gori. Georgian officials had said the conflict would end if the United States intervened, however they were counting on the Western diplomatic outcry to impact Russia.