Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Tuesday criticized what he called the European Union's failure to understand Russian motives for going to war in Georgia.
"Unfortunately there is still no full understanding of the motives of the leadership of the Russian Federation when it took the decision to repel the aggression of Georgia," Medvedev said, according to state news agency Itar-TASS.
"This is sad, but not fatal, because everything in the world is changing," he was quoted as saying.
Moscow says that troops were sent to repulse an attempt by Georgia to restore control over South Ossetia, a tiny region where the local ethnic Ossetian population broke away with Russian backing in the 1990s.
Last week the Kremlin recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. No other country has yet followed suit.
Georgia says the Russian incursion was part of a plan to annex its territory and an attempt to bring down the pro-Western government of President Mikhail Saakashvili.