Russia Flexes Muscles In Caucasus: End
Of Post-Soviet Era? A Stern Warning To
Nato
August 12, 2008
Did Georgia's young and
ambitious President Mikhail Saakashvili
miscalculate everything when he ordered an
offensive in his country's breakaway region of
South Ossetia?
Given the scale of the defeat his army
suffered at the hands of the Russian forces
responding to the Georgian offensive, this
appears to be a reasonable conclusion. But
whether his miscalculation is to blame for the
latest tragedy in the troubled Caucasus or
not, it is a clear fact that Russia's backlash
was massive and ominous in threatening to
shift the power balances prevailing in the
Caucasus since the end of the Cold War.
And as Moscow teaches Georgia the lesson that
there is no way to return to the status quo
before the South Ossetia offensive, there is
little the West can do to stop Russia from
overrunning Tbilisi's ambitions to assert
control over its breakaway regions despite
statements from the US administration that it
supports Georgia's "territorial integrity."
The Russian military victory over tiny Georgia
is also a painful message to both Tbilisi and
its Western allies that Georgian desires to
join NATO, a milestone in Georgia's eventual
integration with the US-led West, are unlikely
to become a reality anytime soon.
"My heart aches at this repetitious history of
Russian dominance and aggression, whether
Czarist, Bolshevik or Oligarchic," said Thomas
Goltz, a US expert on the Caucasus. "We can
ask the question: Did Misha [Saakashvili] go
too far or get pulled into a trap? But it
really makes no difference right now. Russia
has just declared the 'post-Soviet era' over
and a new age has begun."
South Ossetia is one of the breakaway regions
in Georgia which declared independence in the
early 1990s and ran its own affairs without
any international recognition. It has been one
of the "frozen conflicts" of the Caucasus in
the post-Cold War era and thus its turning
into a full-scale conflict like this is no
surprise to observers. But it is very
important to note that this is the first time
in the post-Cold War era that Russia has
resorted to military action on such a scale to
defend its interests in a region it sees as
its backyard.
"One of the most important features of the
post-Cold War era is the emergence of
'geopolitical pluralism,'" said Özdem Sanberk,
a former undersecretary of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, referring to the emergence of
new states in what used to be the Soviet Union
territory during the Cold War years. But a
combination of what Russia sees as a hostile
encirclement by the rival West -- through US
moves to build an anti-missile shield system
in eastern Europe and Western support for
Kosovo's independence from Russian ally Serbia
-- and growing Russian power thanks partly to
rising oil prices, now prompts Russia to take
steps to destroy this "geopolitical pluralism"
in the Caucasus. "That means a return to the
Cold War era," Sanberk said.
A New York Times analysis said yesterday that
the US administration officials acknowledge
that "Moscow is in the driver's seat," given
the fact that Russia's emerging aggressiveness
is now also timed with America's preoccupation
with Iraq and Afghanistan and a looming
confrontation with Iran. The newspaper quoted
George Friedman, the chief executive of
Stratfor, a geopolitical analysis and
intelligence company, as saying: "We've placed
ourselves in a position that globally we don't
have the wherewithal to do anything. One would
think under those circumstances, we'd shut
up."
Saakashvili won the last elections on promises
of NATO membership, something which Georgia
hopes will give it Western protection against
former ruler Russia, and control over the
breakaway regions. But NATO's Bucharest summit
earlier this year disappointed the Georgian
administration, saying it still has problems
in ensuring its territorial integrity.
Russia, on the other hand, sees Georgia's NATO
membership as part of the hostile encirclement
by the West. After Russian diplomacy failed to
stop Kosovo's independence earlier this year,
Russian leaders warned this would be a
precedent for breakaway regions in the
Caucasus, including South Ossetia.
Georgia is the most loyal US ally in the
Caucasus and is of key importance in the
transfer of natural gas and oil from Caspian
fields to the West via a non-Russian route.
But now, having paid a high price for its
high-stake offensive in South Ossetia,
Georgia, and others who counted so far on the
West to counterbalance Russia, are being
forced to reconsider their trust in the US and
NATO. The Russian victory in South Ossetia may
well force a change of power in Georgia, with
Saakashvili eventually being replaced by a
less pro-Western leader in a blow to US
interests in the region.
Russian experts, on the other hand, argue that
the Russian position is promising and
peaceful. Moscow-based political analyst
Dmitry Peskov argues that in fact Russia was
not preparing for this conflict. "With our
president on vacation and our prime minister
at the Olympics, Russian officials were not
ready for such a fast-paced and dramatic
story," he said. Speaking to Today's Zaman
yesterday, Peskov said that following three
days of Georgia's offensive a humanitarian
crisis had erupted and a number of Russian
soldiers had died in Ossetia. The Russian
society is considering the question of when
and where it will be ready to stop the
military action. "With Georgian troops outside
Ossetia and with peacekeepers, working under a
UN mandate, Russia will stop immediately," he
said.
Turkey, which is cooperating with Georgia in
all key trans-Caucasus transportation and
energy transfer projects and is helping
Tbilisi modernize its army, has also been
caught in a difficult situation. Despite its
strong support for Georgia's integration with
Western institutions and the reliance on
Tbilisi to reach the region due to problems
with neighboring Armenia, siding with Georgia
in its conflict with Russia is not a smart
policy move. Trade with Russia has grown
tremendously over the past years and Russia is
Turkey's largest natural gas supplier,
providing about 70 percent of its annual gas
needs.
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