Posted on 04/18/2008 9:43:21 PM PDT by neverdem
Vladimir Putin, the outgoing Russian president, on Wednesday accelerated Moscow’s creeping annexation of Georgian territories to sweeping annexation. This is a victory for hardliners who pressed Mr Putin to give the order before he moves from the Kremlin to the Russian White House as prime minister. It comes as Georgian proposals for peaceful settlements in the territories, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, languish. The west must shake off its torpor, condemn Mr Putin’s gambit and support the Georgian proposals. Ignoring Moscow’s Soviet-style land-grab would intensify strife in the south Caucasus.
According to Mr Putin’s “instruction”, Russia will open “representations” in the two territories to protect the interests of Russian citizens there and to foster co-operation. Russia will claim that it has many citizens to protect in the two Georgian territories, after it illegally distributed its passports to anyone remaining after the civil wars and ethnic cleansing of the 1990s.
“Those who cannot learn from history,” said George Santayana, the Spanish philosopher, “are doomed to repeat it.” In 1937, Hitler agitated for the rights of the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia; in 1938, he annexed Sudetenland into the Reich, purging it of non-Germans. In Abkhazia, most Georgians, Armenians, Estonians, Greeks and Russians – perhaps 500,000 in all – are already gone. Russia recognises Georgia’s international boundaries, but its actions belie its words.
Russia’s “representations” will be less than official consulates, although consular services will be offered from offices in neighbouring bits of Russia. “Representation” is a euphemism to soothe western fears that Moscow may recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in tit-for-tat retaliation for western recognition of Kosovo. However, in Moscow’s insidious gambit, the “representations” will be among the final steps toward annexation of the two Georgian territories.
The instruction allows Russian ministries and even Russian regions to open “representations” in Sukhumi and Tskhinvali, the capitals of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It is a stratagem to install in two Georgian territories government apparatus typical of autonomous republics of the Russian Federation. Just as legal acts, corporate entities and documents of one autonomous republic are recognised throughout the Russian Federation, so too will be legal decisions, companies and papers of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This will incorporate the two territories into the Russian legal space.
Consider Moscow’s widening gait in the context of over a decade of creeping annexation. Russia maintains a near-total embargo on Georgia – no road, rail or sea links; no commerce, bank transactions or mail.
In March, Russia withdrew from the 1996 Commonwealth of Independent States restrictions on Abkhazia, including those that barred transfer of military equipment and assistance. Russia also opened to Abkhazian contractors lucrative contracts associated with the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The net effect is to include Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the Russian economic space while maintaining formidable barriers against trade with the rest of Georgia.
The threat of force is never deeply submerged. Last November, Georgia reported that additional T-72 tanks, Grad multiple launch rocket systems, armoured personnel carriers, howitzers and about 200 new Russian troops had appeared in Abkhazia.
The authorities in Sukhumi and Tskhinvali are Russian subsidiaries. Moscow is taking big steps during the lull afforded by America’s presidential transition and by the hope of many European leaders for improved relations with Dmitry Medvedev, incoming Russian president.
Meanwhile, the west appears deaf and dumb to Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s offer on March 28 of unprecedented autonomy for Abkhazia in Georgia. Georgia’s proposal of a new negotiating format for South Ossetia fares no better. Western political autism is irresponsible. The west must awake and unite, not to oppose Russia or support Georgia, but to stand up for its ideals. It must send Mr Medvedev a strong signal that the path to better relations lies only in repudiating the Putin instruction and engaging on the Georgian peace proposals.
“The belief that security can be obtained by throwing a small state to the wolves is a fatal delusion,” said Winston Churchill just before Munich – we should have learnt the lesson 70 years ago.
The writer is former Estonian prime minister and an adviser to the government of Georgia
Putin will continue his blatant neo-Stalinist tactics through his ‘elected’ puppet, since no one in the West will forcefully challenge his régime on arming the worst terrorist dictatorships in the world, nor his vicious bully tactics against free nations which used to behind the Iron Curtain.
He's more of a Fascist (and, no, not in the Godwin sense of the word).
After Kosovo we really have no leg to stand on here. Russian actions in Georgia will have the same legitimacy from the legal standpoint as ours did in Kosovo.
Thing is, these territories are loaded with Muslims, who I’m sure are just thrilled to be part of Mother Russia again. Vlad needs to be careful what he wishes for.
In remarks, Putin laments Soviet fall
MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin lamented the demise of the Soviet Union in some of his strongest language to date, saying in a nationally televized speech yesterday that it was ''the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century."
IMHO, Putin is a revanchist.
If the write is correct and Putin pulls the old “we need to represent our citizens” gambit, then the Baltics are next and the Ukraine after that. This is no Kosovo tit-for-tat.
Hmmmmm!
This might be a good opportunity for us to annex Mexico and make them start paying income tax. At the same time we could wipe out the little havens of drug lords that hug the border.
An excellent idea. To have Mexico in some sort of equal union with us in an NAU is absurd. The only way we should have any political association with Mexico is if they are annexed to the US as sovereign US territory.
Those who reason with quotes are historians not philosophers.
Yeah, but Georgia is not Czechoslovakia and Chenya is not Poland.
Nuclear weapons make things different too.
The analogy itself breaks Godwin’s rule from the very beginning. Set, game and match for the opposing viewpoint.
[Usenet] “As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful. Godwin himself has discussed the subject. See also Formosa's Law.
If the Russkies want to behave like malignant imperialists again, there's no reason to turn a blind eye, let alone reward their behavior with G8 meetings and other such BS.
Exactly. Kosovo was a really, really, really stupid move.
Why insult the Fascists? He’s a Chekist, pure and simple.
Actually it is more a case for Mexico to annex the US.
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