Georgia and the West: Goebbels Would Have Been Happy
1) Georgia and the West: Goebbels Would Have Been Happy
Elena Ponomareva
"...Operation Storm and Operation Flash launched by the
Croatian army in May-August, 1995 against the
unrecognized Republic of Serpska Krajina were
particularly similar to the Georgian offensive in
South Ossetia... On August 9, the Georgian Fuhrer gave
a 10-minute interview to CNN, which opened an obviously
synchronized anti-Russian campaign in the Western
media..."
2) Russia's ambassador to NATO: Georgian President is a war criminal
3) South Ossetia: The War Began!
Andrei Areshev
"...It is symbolic that Tbilisi launched the aggression
on the anniversary of the fall of the Republic of
Serbian Krajina..."
All following articles were posted by Rick Rozoff on the lists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato
http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yugoslaviainfo
--- 1 ---
http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=1539
Strategic Culture Foundation
August 12, 2008
Georgia and the West: Goebbels Would Have Been Happy
Elena Ponomareva
The war in South Ossetia is a war of medieval atrocity
unleashed by a country whose culture is based on
Orthodox Christianity, a country claiming to be "a
young democracy" and seeing itself as part of "humane"
Europe.
The aggression launched by the current Georgian regime
and its puppeteers is marked by extraordinary cruelty
and cynical lies. Tbilisi would have never dared to do
what it did without the support of the US.
Even in Ancient Greece, there was an understanding
that wars can be fair or unfair. The civilized West,
part of which Georgia is trying to be, is obsessed by
human rights and believes itself to be superior to the
Greeks, but this does not prevent some (Georgia) from
perpetrating genocide and others (Europe and the US)
from encouraging the aggressor.
The analysis of the way the aggression began - without
a formal declaration of war – and of the overall
conduct of the Georgian leadership makes one ask a
number of questions.
One of them is: can a crazy fanatic be regarded as a
human being? The answer is – definitely not! The
crimes committed in South Ossetia – the killings of
women, children, and senior citizens, the deliberate
extermination of civilians – are instances of inhuman
conduct.
Specialists in ethical anthropology (Boris Didenko)
either explain this type of behavior by brain disease
or attribute it to the specifics of the conduct of
super-aggressive human species. In the latter case,
their intentions simply cannot be changed. In the
Russian language, such individuals are called non-men.
These are monstrous creatures more dangerous than any
wild beasts.
The protracted standoff in South Ossetia is something
much greater than just a regional conflict.
Nor has it ever been exclusively a conflict between
Georgia and South Ossetia.
It also has axiological, moral, and geopolitical
dimensions.
The unexpectedness and unjustifiable atrocity of the
current war, the careful planning of its military and
informational offensives show clearly that one of the
objectives was to provoke Russia's inadequate
response.
Moscow was expected to act inadequately, and those who
planned the aggression calculated the options open to
Russia.
Option 1: Russia's nonintervention and a withdrawal of
the peacekeepers (or the limitation of their activity
to the defense of their checkpoints).
By the way, this mode of behavior was typical for
peacekeeping forces of various levels throughout the
conflict in Yugoslavia.
Operation Storm and Operation Flash launched by the
Croatian army in May-August, 1995 against the
unrecognized Republic of Serpska Krajina were
particularly similar to the Georgian offensive in
South Ossetia.
One of the results of the above operations was the
total (and, as I firmly believe, deliberate) demise of
the entire UN system of peacekeeping and region
security measures. The world literally watched the
flight of 250,000 Serb civilians and the bombardment
of refugee convoys by Croatian warplanes.
The Serb population in the region decreased by 90.7%
following the Croatian offensive which was silently
OKed by the international community. (1)
Confident of the US support, Saakashvili's regime
hoped to achieve a similar result in South Ossetia.
Croatia practically turned into a mono-ethnic state.
No matter what had been promised, at that time Serbs
saw no help from either the Serbian Republic or
Belgrade. It is well-known what happened to the Pale
and Belgrade leaders later – betrayal is never
rewarded by happiness.
Russia chose to act otherwise.
In the horrible days of the tragedy, Russians not only
truly fulfilled their peacekeeping obligations, but –
above all – they also did not betray their countrymen
in South Ossetia. This means a lot.
Option 2: desired by the US instigators of the war and
the Georgian aggressor: Russia's direct involvement in
an armed conflict with Georgia. The failure of the
expectation made Saakshvili change his plans on the
first day of the war.
On August 9, the Georgian Fuhrer gave a 10-minute
interview to CNN, which opened an obviously
synchronized anti-Russian campaign in the Western
media.
Currently, the main theme is that Russia used all of
its military might against tiny Georgia.
Having such dedicated followers could make Nazi
propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels happy.
As for Saakashvili, he has learned by heart not only
Goebbels's notorious commandment "A lie repeated 100
times becomes the truth", but also the ninth
comandment of national socialism which said "Do what
must be done in the name of the New Gemany without
shame! " (2).
In the case of Saakashvili, it could read the same but
with "the New Georgia" instead.
Over the past several days, the independent and
objective Western media have been launching an all-out
mankurtization campaign.
The term mankurt was introduced into modern languages
by well-know Soviet-era novelist Chinghiz Aitmatov in
his The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years.
According to an ancient Turkic myth, a fresh raw camel
hide would be put as a cap on the thoroughly shaven
head of a captive meant to be turned into a slave.
The slave with his hands tied and with a large wooden
stock around his neck preventing him from reaching his
head would be left in a desert for several days.
Once the hide would start drying it would shrink and
bind to the head, thus causing intolerable sufferings
further strengthened by thirst. In a while the victim
either died or lost the memory of the past life and
became a perfect slave having no independent will and
totally subdued by its master.
In the modern world, the complex procedure of
suppressing human will and ability to think and to
analyze has become extremely simple and is known as
brainwashing.
Judging by the dirty lies about the war waged by the
Georgian leadership against civilians and Russian
peacekeepers in South Ossetia, the biased Western
media and political leaders of the Euro-Atlantic
civilization regard their own citizens as mankurts.
The global success of brainwashing during the
Croatian, Bosnian, Kosovo, Chechen, Iraqi, Crimean,
Transdnistrian and other crises is renowned. The
aggression of mankurts was invariably directed at the
nations designated by the masters - Serbs, Russians,
Iraqis. What could prevent Georgia from resorting to
the familiar technology?
Here is an example: the interview given to CNN by
Russian envoy to the UN Security Council V. Churkin,
in which he condemned the barbarian conduct of the
Georgian aggressor, was aired with a caption saying
that Russia was bombing Georgian towns, and the title
remained on the screen throughout the broadcast.
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer would have
explained the current policies adopted by Western
media as follows: "invariably, the source of lies is
the intention to dominate others by suppressing their
will in order to reaffirm one's own. Consequently,
lies as such stem from injustice, greed, and anger".
Western journalists who never visited South Ossetia
and used the footage from Russian media consistently
avoided mentioning the following appalling figures:
2,000 people – over 15% of the population of South
Ossetia – had been killed in less than 24 hours. The
international community so preoccupied with human
rights issues does not seem to be concerned about the
people trapped without water, electric power, and food
under the ruins of Tskhinvali.
Why is it that Russia is the only country to supply
humanitarian aid to South Ossetia? What has happened
to your hearts, humane Europeans? Have you forgotten
how to use Internet? Do you no longer have satellite
TV? Are you really so afraid of alternative
information sources?
***
To an extent, my criticism of the Western media and
their audiences applies to Russian news agencies and
TV channels as well. We must be doing a fairly poor
job if it is so easy to portray Russia as the
aggressor and the suppressor of the Caucasus!
It is common knowledge that whoever has information
has power. In the case of Russia, the issue is
extremely serious: its national security and the
protection of its national interests are impossible
without informational security, which must be promoted
by everyone here from the President to a provincial
newspaper journalist. Anyhow, we are people, not
mankurts!
____________________
(1) Z. Lilic. Prospects for Peace and Cooperation.
Serbia, Belgrade, 1996, #29, p. 7.
(2) Thus Spoke Goebbels. Selected Papers of the Reich
Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
//Goebbels J. Die ausgewählte Reden und Artikel. -
http://hedrook.vho.org/download/goebbels.rar
--- 2 ---
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30745&cid=45&p=09.08.2008
Voice of Russia
August 9, 2008
Georgian President is a war criminal
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is a war
criminal who organized ethnic cleansing and genocide
against civilians in South Ossetia.
Russia's ambassador to NATO Dmitri Rogozin said that
the International Court of Justice in The Hague could
accuse him of committing these crimes.
--- 3 ---
http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=1530
Strategic Culture Foundation (Russia)
August 9, 2008
South Ossetia: The War Began!
Andrei Areshev
On the night of August 7, Georgian forces launched an
attack on Tskhinvali, which Tbilisi cynically
described as an effort to restore the constitutional
order.
Just hours earlier, Saakashvili declared a ceasefire
in the conflict zone, but the move was only a
propaganda maneuver disguising the plan for a
large-scale offensive. The timing is carefully chosen
— the attention worldwide is focused on the opening of
the Olympic Games, Russian Prime Minister V. Putin is
in Beijing, and Russian President D. Medvedev is on a
short vacation.
Georgian forces are acting with extreme ferocity.
A total devastation of the Tskhinvali downtown which
came under Grad missile, artillery, mortar, and
machinegun fire has been reported.
Dozens of blasts shatter the city every minute.
Tens of armored vehicles and thousands of soldiers
moved into the conflict zone.
Russian Peacekeeping Force Deputy Commander V. Ivanov
said that the positions of the peacekeepers were not
directly targeted or hit and that they continue to
watch the situation in the region. However, the
Ossetian side and Russian journalists say that the
peacekeepers' headquarters came under fire.
The offensive has already left tens if not hundreds of
people dead.
Nevertheless, it appears that the activity of the
peacekeepers remains limited to monitoring the
situation.
Their inaction helps the aggressor — the Georgian side
states that the Russian peacekeepers are not
intervening in the conflict. The army of South Ossetia
returned fire, but it has no potential comparable to
that of the Georgian forces. Several Ossetian villages
have already been seized and there is a possibility
that the Zar highway linking the Republic to Russia
will be blocked.
The statement made by Mathew Bryza in connection with
the events is remarkably cynical — cunningly siding
with Georgia and interpreting Moscow's position in the
manner of a downright hooligan, he blamed the
escalation on South Ossetia.
Earlier Condolezza Rice said in Tbilisi that the US
was entirely on Georgia's side in the conflict, thus
leaving no doubts concerning the US position.
US State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos says
the US demands that Moscow exert pressure on the
leadership of South Ossetia in order to achieve a
ceasefire in the conflict zone. At the same time, the
Georgian side is no more than advised to exercise
restraint.
It is symbolic that Tbilisi launched the aggression on
the anniversary of the fall of the Republic of Serbian
Krajina.
Its demise became a prologue to the next phase of the
Balkan war - to the war in Kosovo, the NATO strikes on
Serbia, and the humiliation and partition of the
country. It has been said many times that the West is
reusing the Balkan scenario in the Caucasus, and that
this time Russia is planned to play the role of
Serbia.
Belgrade politicians who said 13 years ago that
selling out their countrymen in Croatia and Bosnia
would preclude Western aggression now pretend they
were unaware that Serbia's turn would come after that
ofthe Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.
Is Moscow capable to learn at least anything from the
recent past?
In 1995, the UN "peacekeepers" opened the way for the
Croatian army which was killing Serbs, and these days
we see Russian and Ossetian peacekeepers helplessly
watching Georgian artillery hammer residential
quarters in Tskhinvali.
In the Caucasus, the consequences of such helplessness
are going to be catastrophic — there will be no
respect for a weak country unable to normalize the
situation at its border and to protect its citizens.
The situation can spin out of control and evolve to
conditions under which the federal authorities will be
unable to control not only the activities of informal
leaders and the mobs of their followers, but even
those of the heads of the Republics of the North
Caucasus who — in case the escalation continues - will
start acting independently and attempt to somehow
establish control over the process.
North Ossetian President Taymuraz Mamsurov already
said that hundreds of volunteers are on their way to
South Ossetia. He said: "We cannot stop them."
People from other Republics of the North Caucasus and
from Abkhazia are ready to do the same. As of 4 a.m.
August 8, the border guards in North Ossetia did not
report Russian forces crossing the border.
The Georgian aggression deals a heavy blow to Russia's
positions in the North Caucasus. In case it is
"backed" by several terrorist acts (the blast at a
beach in Sochi was a wakeup call), more than just the
2014 Olympiad will be at stake. The entire system of
administration in Russia can be rendered shaky by
several precisely targeted strikes, the result being a
direct threat to the existence of the Russian state.
Sadly, the warnings about the long-term negative
consequences of the passivity of Russian diplomacy in
dealing with the issue of the unrecognized Republics
have had no effect despite being reiterated for years.
The obvious truth that the Georgian authority so
heavily armed by the West is not going to play games
and some day will go all the way to the end was simply
ignored. As in 1992 and 1993, it is Russia who will
have to address the resulting problems, the difference
being that today's Georgian army is something much
more serious than the gangs led by Kitovani and
Ioseliani.
So far Moscow has reacted to Georgia's aggressive
intentions solely by uncertain calls for peace and
invitations to sign an agreement not to use force,
thus practically making the job easier for Tbilisi.
Hopes that "things will somehow settle down" and that
Moscow's non-recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia
will delay Georgia's NATO integration — which was a
decided matter - have not materialized.
Tbilisi openly ridiculed such expectations and
remained fully aware of its tasks and of the support
of its allies. Unfortunately, Russia did not provide
equally decisive support to its friends in the
Caucasus.
At the moment, only urgent measures can remedy the
situation. Russia should immediately break diplomatic
relations with Georgia, and, in case the aggression
continues, deliver airstrikes on the Georgian forces
in South Osssetia (including the Liakhv corridor which
is Georgia's main strategic recourse in the de-facto
Republic).
Only a prompt and resolute response can arrest the
aggression and also prevent similar developments in
Abkhazia, which would destabilize the Caucasus
irreversibly.
Statements like "we will not just stand by" and "we
have an adequate response" are no longer enough.
As the informational aspect of the resolute response,
Russia should state that it is opening an
anti-terrorist operation aimed at countering the act
of state terrorism and at protecting the lives of
civilians.
Following the return to the status quo — this time
ensured by force — Russia should immediately form a
defense alliance with South Ossetia and Abkhazia and
the Russian parliament should establish the status of
the two Republics as associated subjects within the
Russian Federation.
1) Georgia and the West: Goebbels Would Have Been Happy
Elena Ponomareva
"...Operation Storm and Operation Flash launched by the
Croatian army in May-August, 1995 against the
unrecognized Republic of Serpska Krajina were
particularly similar to the Georgian offensive in
South Ossetia... On August 9, the Georgian Fuhrer gave
a 10-minute interview to CNN, which opened an obviously
synchronized anti-Russian campaign in the Western
media..."
2) Russia's ambassador to NATO: Georgian President is a war criminal
3) South Ossetia: The War Began!
Andrei Areshev
"...It is symbolic that Tbilisi launched the aggression
on the anniversary of the fall of the Republic of
Serbian Krajina..."
All following articles were posted by Rick Rozoff on the lists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato
http://lists.topica.com/lists/ANTINATO/read
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yugoslaviainfo
--- 1 ---
http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=1539
Strategic Culture Foundation
August 12, 2008
Georgia and the West: Goebbels Would Have Been Happy
Elena Ponomareva
The war in South Ossetia is a war of medieval atrocity
unleashed by a country whose culture is based on
Orthodox Christianity, a country claiming to be "a
young democracy" and seeing itself as part of "humane"
Europe.
The aggression launched by the current Georgian regime
and its puppeteers is marked by extraordinary cruelty
and cynical lies. Tbilisi would have never dared to do
what it did without the support of the US.
Even in Ancient Greece, there was an understanding
that wars can be fair or unfair. The civilized West,
part of which Georgia is trying to be, is obsessed by
human rights and believes itself to be superior to the
Greeks, but this does not prevent some (Georgia) from
perpetrating genocide and others (Europe and the US)
from encouraging the aggressor.
The analysis of the way the aggression began - without
a formal declaration of war – and of the overall
conduct of the Georgian leadership makes one ask a
number of questions.
One of them is: can a crazy fanatic be regarded as a
human being? The answer is – definitely not! The
crimes committed in South Ossetia – the killings of
women, children, and senior citizens, the deliberate
extermination of civilians – are instances of inhuman
conduct.
Specialists in ethical anthropology (Boris Didenko)
either explain this type of behavior by brain disease
or attribute it to the specifics of the conduct of
super-aggressive human species. In the latter case,
their intentions simply cannot be changed. In the
Russian language, such individuals are called non-men.
These are monstrous creatures more dangerous than any
wild beasts.
The protracted standoff in South Ossetia is something
much greater than just a regional conflict.
Nor has it ever been exclusively a conflict between
Georgia and South Ossetia.
It also has axiological, moral, and geopolitical
dimensions.
The unexpectedness and unjustifiable atrocity of the
current war, the careful planning of its military and
informational offensives show clearly that one of the
objectives was to provoke Russia's inadequate
response.
Moscow was expected to act inadequately, and those who
planned the aggression calculated the options open to
Russia.
Option 1: Russia's nonintervention and a withdrawal of
the peacekeepers (or the limitation of their activity
to the defense of their checkpoints).
By the way, this mode of behavior was typical for
peacekeeping forces of various levels throughout the
conflict in Yugoslavia.
Operation Storm and Operation Flash launched by the
Croatian army in May-August, 1995 against the
unrecognized Republic of Serpska Krajina were
particularly similar to the Georgian offensive in
South Ossetia.
One of the results of the above operations was the
total (and, as I firmly believe, deliberate) demise of
the entire UN system of peacekeeping and region
security measures. The world literally watched the
flight of 250,000 Serb civilians and the bombardment
of refugee convoys by Croatian warplanes.
The Serb population in the region decreased by 90.7%
following the Croatian offensive which was silently
OKed by the international community. (1)
Confident of the US support, Saakashvili's regime
hoped to achieve a similar result in South Ossetia.
Croatia practically turned into a mono-ethnic state.
No matter what had been promised, at that time Serbs
saw no help from either the Serbian Republic or
Belgrade. It is well-known what happened to the Pale
and Belgrade leaders later – betrayal is never
rewarded by happiness.
Russia chose to act otherwise.
In the horrible days of the tragedy, Russians not only
truly fulfilled their peacekeeping obligations, but –
above all – they also did not betray their countrymen
in South Ossetia. This means a lot.
Option 2: desired by the US instigators of the war and
the Georgian aggressor: Russia's direct involvement in
an armed conflict with Georgia. The failure of the
expectation made Saakshvili change his plans on the
first day of the war.
On August 9, the Georgian Fuhrer gave a 10-minute
interview to CNN, which opened an obviously
synchronized anti-Russian campaign in the Western
media.
Currently, the main theme is that Russia used all of
its military might against tiny Georgia.
Having such dedicated followers could make Nazi
propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels happy.
As for Saakashvili, he has learned by heart not only
Goebbels's notorious commandment "A lie repeated 100
times becomes the truth", but also the ninth
comandment of national socialism which said "Do what
must be done in the name of the New Gemany without
shame! " (2).
In the case of Saakashvili, it could read the same but
with "the New Georgia" instead.
Over the past several days, the independent and
objective Western media have been launching an all-out
mankurtization campaign.
The term mankurt was introduced into modern languages
by well-know Soviet-era novelist Chinghiz Aitmatov in
his The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years.
According to an ancient Turkic myth, a fresh raw camel
hide would be put as a cap on the thoroughly shaven
head of a captive meant to be turned into a slave.
The slave with his hands tied and with a large wooden
stock around his neck preventing him from reaching his
head would be left in a desert for several days.
Once the hide would start drying it would shrink and
bind to the head, thus causing intolerable sufferings
further strengthened by thirst. In a while the victim
either died or lost the memory of the past life and
became a perfect slave having no independent will and
totally subdued by its master.
In the modern world, the complex procedure of
suppressing human will and ability to think and to
analyze has become extremely simple and is known as
brainwashing.
Judging by the dirty lies about the war waged by the
Georgian leadership against civilians and Russian
peacekeepers in South Ossetia, the biased Western
media and political leaders of the Euro-Atlantic
civilization regard their own citizens as mankurts.
The global success of brainwashing during the
Croatian, Bosnian, Kosovo, Chechen, Iraqi, Crimean,
Transdnistrian and other crises is renowned. The
aggression of mankurts was invariably directed at the
nations designated by the masters - Serbs, Russians,
Iraqis. What could prevent Georgia from resorting to
the familiar technology?
Here is an example: the interview given to CNN by
Russian envoy to the UN Security Council V. Churkin,
in which he condemned the barbarian conduct of the
Georgian aggressor, was aired with a caption saying
that Russia was bombing Georgian towns, and the title
remained on the screen throughout the broadcast.
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer would have
explained the current policies adopted by Western
media as follows: "invariably, the source of lies is
the intention to dominate others by suppressing their
will in order to reaffirm one's own. Consequently,
lies as such stem from injustice, greed, and anger".
Western journalists who never visited South Ossetia
and used the footage from Russian media consistently
avoided mentioning the following appalling figures:
2,000 people – over 15% of the population of South
Ossetia – had been killed in less than 24 hours. The
international community so preoccupied with human
rights issues does not seem to be concerned about the
people trapped without water, electric power, and food
under the ruins of Tskhinvali.
Why is it that Russia is the only country to supply
humanitarian aid to South Ossetia? What has happened
to your hearts, humane Europeans? Have you forgotten
how to use Internet? Do you no longer have satellite
TV? Are you really so afraid of alternative
information sources?
***
To an extent, my criticism of the Western media and
their audiences applies to Russian news agencies and
TV channels as well. We must be doing a fairly poor
job if it is so easy to portray Russia as the
aggressor and the suppressor of the Caucasus!
It is common knowledge that whoever has information
has power. In the case of Russia, the issue is
extremely serious: its national security and the
protection of its national interests are impossible
without informational security, which must be promoted
by everyone here from the President to a provincial
newspaper journalist. Anyhow, we are people, not
mankurts!
____________________
(1) Z. Lilic. Prospects for Peace and Cooperation.
Serbia, Belgrade, 1996, #29, p. 7.
(2) Thus Spoke Goebbels. Selected Papers of the Reich
Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
//Goebbels J. Die ausgewählte Reden und Artikel. -
http://hedrook.vho.org/download/goebbels.rar
--- 2 ---
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30745&cid=45&p=09.08.2008
Voice of Russia
August 9, 2008
Georgian President is a war criminal
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is a war
criminal who organized ethnic cleansing and genocide
against civilians in South Ossetia.
Russia's ambassador to NATO Dmitri Rogozin said that
the International Court of Justice in The Hague could
accuse him of committing these crimes.
--- 3 ---
http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=1530
Strategic Culture Foundation (Russia)
August 9, 2008
South Ossetia: The War Began!
Andrei Areshev
On the night of August 7, Georgian forces launched an
attack on Tskhinvali, which Tbilisi cynically
described as an effort to restore the constitutional
order.
Just hours earlier, Saakashvili declared a ceasefire
in the conflict zone, but the move was only a
propaganda maneuver disguising the plan for a
large-scale offensive. The timing is carefully chosen
— the attention worldwide is focused on the opening of
the Olympic Games, Russian Prime Minister V. Putin is
in Beijing, and Russian President D. Medvedev is on a
short vacation.
Georgian forces are acting with extreme ferocity.
A total devastation of the Tskhinvali downtown which
came under Grad missile, artillery, mortar, and
machinegun fire has been reported.
Dozens of blasts shatter the city every minute.
Tens of armored vehicles and thousands of soldiers
moved into the conflict zone.
Russian Peacekeeping Force Deputy Commander V. Ivanov
said that the positions of the peacekeepers were not
directly targeted or hit and that they continue to
watch the situation in the region. However, the
Ossetian side and Russian journalists say that the
peacekeepers' headquarters came under fire.
The offensive has already left tens if not hundreds of
people dead.
Nevertheless, it appears that the activity of the
peacekeepers remains limited to monitoring the
situation.
Their inaction helps the aggressor — the Georgian side
states that the Russian peacekeepers are not
intervening in the conflict. The army of South Ossetia
returned fire, but it has no potential comparable to
that of the Georgian forces. Several Ossetian villages
have already been seized and there is a possibility
that the Zar highway linking the Republic to Russia
will be blocked.
The statement made by Mathew Bryza in connection with
the events is remarkably cynical — cunningly siding
with Georgia and interpreting Moscow's position in the
manner of a downright hooligan, he blamed the
escalation on South Ossetia.
Earlier Condolezza Rice said in Tbilisi that the US
was entirely on Georgia's side in the conflict, thus
leaving no doubts concerning the US position.
US State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos says
the US demands that Moscow exert pressure on the
leadership of South Ossetia in order to achieve a
ceasefire in the conflict zone. At the same time, the
Georgian side is no more than advised to exercise
restraint.
It is symbolic that Tbilisi launched the aggression on
the anniversary of the fall of the Republic of Serbian
Krajina.
Its demise became a prologue to the next phase of the
Balkan war - to the war in Kosovo, the NATO strikes on
Serbia, and the humiliation and partition of the
country. It has been said many times that the West is
reusing the Balkan scenario in the Caucasus, and that
this time Russia is planned to play the role of
Serbia.
Belgrade politicians who said 13 years ago that
selling out their countrymen in Croatia and Bosnia
would preclude Western aggression now pretend they
were unaware that Serbia's turn would come after that
ofthe Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.
Is Moscow capable to learn at least anything from the
recent past?
In 1995, the UN "peacekeepers" opened the way for the
Croatian army which was killing Serbs, and these days
we see Russian and Ossetian peacekeepers helplessly
watching Georgian artillery hammer residential
quarters in Tskhinvali.
In the Caucasus, the consequences of such helplessness
are going to be catastrophic — there will be no
respect for a weak country unable to normalize the
situation at its border and to protect its citizens.
The situation can spin out of control and evolve to
conditions under which the federal authorities will be
unable to control not only the activities of informal
leaders and the mobs of their followers, but even
those of the heads of the Republics of the North
Caucasus who — in case the escalation continues - will
start acting independently and attempt to somehow
establish control over the process.
North Ossetian President Taymuraz Mamsurov already
said that hundreds of volunteers are on their way to
South Ossetia. He said: "We cannot stop them."
People from other Republics of the North Caucasus and
from Abkhazia are ready to do the same. As of 4 a.m.
August 8, the border guards in North Ossetia did not
report Russian forces crossing the border.
The Georgian aggression deals a heavy blow to Russia's
positions in the North Caucasus. In case it is
"backed" by several terrorist acts (the blast at a
beach in Sochi was a wakeup call), more than just the
2014 Olympiad will be at stake. The entire system of
administration in Russia can be rendered shaky by
several precisely targeted strikes, the result being a
direct threat to the existence of the Russian state.
Sadly, the warnings about the long-term negative
consequences of the passivity of Russian diplomacy in
dealing with the issue of the unrecognized Republics
have had no effect despite being reiterated for years.
The obvious truth that the Georgian authority so
heavily armed by the West is not going to play games
and some day will go all the way to the end was simply
ignored. As in 1992 and 1993, it is Russia who will
have to address the resulting problems, the difference
being that today's Georgian army is something much
more serious than the gangs led by Kitovani and
Ioseliani.
So far Moscow has reacted to Georgia's aggressive
intentions solely by uncertain calls for peace and
invitations to sign an agreement not to use force,
thus practically making the job easier for Tbilisi.
Hopes that "things will somehow settle down" and that
Moscow's non-recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia
will delay Georgia's NATO integration — which was a
decided matter - have not materialized.
Tbilisi openly ridiculed such expectations and
remained fully aware of its tasks and of the support
of its allies. Unfortunately, Russia did not provide
equally decisive support to its friends in the
Caucasus.
At the moment, only urgent measures can remedy the
situation. Russia should immediately break diplomatic
relations with Georgia, and, in case the aggression
continues, deliver airstrikes on the Georgian forces
in South Osssetia (including the Liakhv corridor which
is Georgia's main strategic recourse in the de-facto
Republic).
Only a prompt and resolute response can arrest the
aggression and also prevent similar developments in
Abkhazia, which would destabilize the Caucasus
irreversibly.
Statements like "we will not just stand by" and "we
have an adequate response" are no longer enough.
As the informational aspect of the resolute response,
Russia should state that it is opening an
anti-terrorist operation aimed at countering the act
of state terrorism and at protecting the lives of
civilians.
Following the return to the status quo — this time
ensured by force — Russia should immediately form a
defense alliance with South Ossetia and Abkhazia and
the Russian parliament should establish the status of
the two Republics as associated subjects within the
Russian Federation.