RussianBearHugs

From the e-mails received from the readers of my blogs about the Russians in Georgia it’s clear that this is an issue that worries many of us. The fact that the Russians signed a ceasefire with the Georgians a couple of days back gave many a false sense of security.

We have all witnessed on television and media reports that there are many casual and perhaps organized acts of savagery being perpetrated on local and international civilians by the South Ossetian militia.

The facts are that, so far, the Russians are tightening their grip on the areas of Georgia in which they are interested. Clearly they are also allowing the South Ossetian militia free rein to terrorize the ethnic Georgians who live amongst them. There are many stories of murder, pillage and looting of this nature. If the Russians wanted to put an end to this outrageous behavior they could do it in a moment.

Meanwhile the American government is making increasingly graver noises of disapproval of Russia’s actions.

The Western “liberal” media’s attempt to equate Russian actions in Georgia with those of the Western alliance in Iraq and Afghanistan especially angers me. They bear virtually no similarity and this argument, should we have it, is specious and intentionally mischievous. Just for starters we all should remember two names, the Taliban and Sadaam Hussein. They, and some of their most cruel, illegitimate, barbarous, deceitful and heinous acts formed part of the argument to demolish those regimes. The fact that they massacred people, tortured, gassed and pulled people’s lives apart seems to have been conveniently forgotten. What did Georgia do that had any equivalence?

Other than having the misfortune to be geographically contiguous to the Russian bear they didn’t do much wrong. Russia just doesn’t want a friend of the West living on their doorstep.

This might have a serious and adverse affect on the long-term relationships of many of Russia’s neighbors. Poland has now agreed to the stationing of American missiles on its soil after 18 months of negotiation. As Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister stated, “We have crossed the Rubicon,” referring to this move being fundamental to the future of his country’s relationship with Russia. Tusk went on to explain that this deal with America included a “mutual commitment” between his country and the USA to come to each other’s assistance in case of trouble.

This is clearly aimed at countering the perceived Russian threat although the Polish and American official stance is that the missile umbrella is really being put into place to counter the threat from various unnamed rogue states. The Russians don’t believe this and see it as a strategic threat and believe this move upsets the military balance in their region and as a consequence they have stated they will be aiming their missiles at these new missile installations.

The Russian action in South Ossetia and Georgia is not over even though they claim that it is. Listen to the words of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, “One can forget about Georgia’s territorial integrity because I believe it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state.”

On the ground the Russians give every indication that those two semi autonomous regions are being forcibly switched from nominal Georgian control to formal Russian hegemony. There might also be some of Georgia itself that the Russians will decide to keep as a victory prize. If any country dares to challenge this the whole of that country could well find itself back in the Russian empire.