Crisis in Georgia
By Jennifer J. Foster
Published: August 13, 2008
As reporters were witnessing Russian convoys roll south from the Georgian town of Gori down the only main road to the capital of Tblisi, CNN’s John Roberts conducted a riveting interview with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili this morning. (See it at the bottom of this entry.)
Obviously and understandably desperate to protect his country, Saakashvili explained to Roberts why Americans should be concerned about the Russian incursion into his nation, the strongest democracy in the region.
What he couldn’t explain was the all-bark-and-no-bite rhetoric from the west—particularly from the United States—which Saakashvili actually said served as a tacit encouragement to the Russians as they mounted their offensive into South Ossetia last week.
South Ossetia is a region in northern Georgia that has been a subject of bitter dispute between Russia and Georgia since the breakup of the former Soviet Union in 1991. South Ossetia has claimed de facto independence since 1995, but Georgia has retained control over parts of the region’s eastern and southern districts and the international community continues to regard it as part of Georgia; the so-called Republic of South Ossetia has never been recognized by the international community.
In an effort to bring the rest of South Ossetia back under Georgia’s control, Saakashvili ordered troops into South Ossetia Aug. 7, even though Georgian authorities had been in negotiations last summer with South Ossetian leaders “to develop South Ossetia’s autonomous status within the Georgian state.“ Russia responded by sending troops to the province to secure the Russian-friendly South Ossetian de facto government.
The result: Georgian leaders say Russia is interfering with Georgia’s internal affairs, while Russian leaders say they are protecting the government and borders of the region they consider an independent ally.
A cease-fire deal was delivered to Russian President Dmitiri Medvedev by French President Nicolas Sarkozy this weekend. In agreeing to its terms, Russia insisted not only on the withdrawal of Georgian forces from South Ossetia, but also the creation and maintenance of a demilitarized zone around South Ossetia – ensuring, in other words, not only Georgia’s acquiescence on the loss of territory it and the international community still regards as its own, but additional territory that is part of the sovereign nation to accommodate the new DMZ.
The cease-fire was less than 12 hours old when Saakashvili said it has been broken by the advance of Russian forces south from Gori toward Tblisi.
That set up the tense interview between Saakashvili and Roberts this morning.
Saavashvili has been a close ally of President Bush, and he has visited Washington as Bush’s guest on at least three occasions. Bush has held Saakashvili and his nation up as shining examples of the successes of democracy and self-determination in the region. Bush has lobbied for Georgia’s inclusion in NATO (which was rejected). And he has said to the people of Georgia and Ukraine that “America will stand with you” – against attempts, presumably by Russia, to undermine their fledgling democracies.
Saakashvili was all but incredulous as he made his country’s case to Roberts. He described how Georgia is the most American-like democracy in the region, with its free press and people. “We must remember what is at stake for America,” he said; “Georgia is the first test” of whether democracy can survive in Russia’s shadow.
Not only is it in America’s interest to protect Georgia’s democracy, Saakashvili said; it should be America’s top priority: “This is much bigger than where there is any other place where there is American national interest,” he said, bringing Iraq into the picture without mentioning the country’s name.
And if not for the sake of its present interests, then certainly for the sake of its history should America stand up for Georgia, Saakashvili said. His frustration with sweeping statements by Western figures – particularly Bush and his successor-hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama – that Russia must back down was evident.
“America is losing everything it achieved in the Cold War,” Saakashvili said. “At some point, words must be turned into deeds …
“America is losing the whole region … America must act … Who else can stand up for liberty in the world?”
Roberts asked Saakashvili how he responds to critics who say he brought the Russian aggression on Georgia himself by defying the warnings of U.S. State Department officials not to invade South Ossetia last week.
Saakashvili stood his ground, saying that such accusations “sicken” him and that reporters who repeat them are repeating the Russian line and playing into Russian strategies to couch the conflict as Georgia’s fault.
“Our troops are always there,” Saakashvili said of South Ossetia, adding something like “that is our people, and that is our land,” in disbelief that his nation could be expected not to fight for reunification, especially since South Ossetia has never been recognized internationally as an independent state.
By the end of the interview, Saakashvili seemed to have resigned himself to the seeming reality that militarily, his country is on its own in this conflict. He ended up conceding that he would no longer insist on U.S. peacekeepers, since he’s unlikely to get any; “any impartial peacekeepers” would be fine, he said.
Of course, as with nearly anything else in that region, the underlying issue isn’t really Georgia or the independence of South Ossetia from it. It’s a battle between the United States and Russia for influence in the area.
Russia has become increasingly annoyed with U.S. attempts to democratize the region, and its opposition to U.S. plans for a missile defense system are well documented. And as observers have noted, the U.S. has little leverage in this situation; it needs Russian leaders’ cooperation to pressure Iranian leaders to fall in line with international demands with regard to its nuclear development program.
Russia knows this, so Russia seems to have chosen South Ossetia as the place to make its stand.
While America has a precedent of not involving itself in what amounts to a border conflict (the ongoing and sometimes-bloody dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir is one example), the situation becomes a different animal when one party invades the proper and internationally recognized borders of the other.
This is especially true when that country is Russia and when the country it is invading is a strong U.S. ally.
Our allies and enemies alike will be watching to see how – and whether – the U.S. can come to the aid of its democratic little brother.
See also:
The entry on Georgia from the CIA’s World Factbook
The Wiki entry on South Ossetia
Twitter updates from Jennifer at 
