In his column today in the New York Times, Mikhail Gorbachev presents the Russian perspective, namely that the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvilli, provoked the crisis. “He would not have dared to act without outside support. Once he did Russia could not afford inaction.”

Gorbachev makes one factual assertion that strikes me as arresting: “Tskhinvali was in smoking ruins and thosuands of people were fleeing—before any Russian troops arrived.”

Is this so? And if it is, then doesn’t Gorbachev—and, for that matter, Putin—have a point?

I’m not making the argument. I’m asking. (If Max Boot happens to be looking in, maybe he’ll reply over at Contentions.)