Georgia: Vladimir Putin Sends Emphatic Message Of Global Importance

Vladimir Putin

From The Telegraph:

Russia's pounding of Georgia means it will use force to protect all 25 million Russians in states that belonged to the Soviet Union.

By seizing the opportunity to pound Georgia with air strikes and military incursions, Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, is sending an emphatic message with global consequences.

The curtain has fallen on the era when Nato steadily expanded into Eastern Europe and onwards to embrace former republics of the Soviet Union - and Russia was able to respond with nothing more than bluster.

Moreover, Mr Putin has demonstrated that the Kremlin will use force to protect the 25 million Russians who inhabit the Soviet Union's successor states, well beyond the mother country's borders.

Read more ....

My Comment: Like the United States, the Russian Federation will go out of its way to protect its citizens. But the problem that we have in the borderline states of Russia is that we have a situation in which a family speaking Russian and is of Russian descent is regarded by Moscow as Russian citizens .... even though (for example) they may be living in the Ukraine and are regarded by the Ukrainian Government as a Ukrainian citizen.

I personally had this problem a few years ago when the Soviet Union still existed. I had wanted to go and visit my relatives in Russia for the first time. While getting my visa I was surprise to learn that even though I was born in Canada, and I am a Canadian citizen ..... because my parents were born in the Soviet Union and were Soviet citizens .... I was to be regarded as a Soviet citizen. This was later resolved .... but this gave me an insight into the Russian bureaucratic mind.

Russia's neighbors are now aware of the consequences of crossing Moscow. Russian regions in which the Russian population is the minority have also been given notice that pressures for autonomy should be put in the drawer.

This nationalistic fever will be Russian policy for the next few years. This is bad news for everyone.

Russia's Neighbours Put On Edge By War Threat

From The Khaleej Times:

WARSAW - The conflict between Georgia and Russia has stunned eastern European nations who can still feel the scars of their domination by the former Soviet Union.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland called on the European Union and NATO to oppose Russia's "imperialist" policy towards Georgia.

And even countries such as Sweden, which was not part of the Soviet bloc, expressed extreme concern at the conflict, making comparisons to Adolf Hitler's tactics as leader of Nazi Germany.

Russia has in turn been vocal in criticising neighbours such as Ukraine, which it accused of "encouraging" Georgia to attack the separatist region of South Ossetia.

"The EU and NATO must take the initiative and stand up against the spread of imperialist and revisionist policy in the east of Europe," the leaders of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland said in a joint statement.

Read more ....

My Comment: An added complication is that for most of these eastern European countries, sizable Russian populations exist. How these groups are treated has become a sore point between many of these countries and Moscow. Like Africa, many countries in the former Soviet Union were divided along lines that were arbitrary and/or done without consideration of the existing populations. For example, Crimea is 60% Russian, but it is a part of the Ukraine. Russia itself has numerous distinct minorities concentrated in certain parts of the country ... but they are part of Russia.

This tension is going to be around for a very long time. My only hope is that unlike Africa, Russia and its neighbors will never decide to go and embrace an environment of perpetual and constant warfare.