Freedom Movements, NATO and Georgia-Russian Fiasco

by Dr.Abdul Ruff Colachal

(August 26, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Even as the US-led terror forces continue to occupy the Islamic nations like Afghanistan and Iraq, while democracies like Israel and India firmly footed in Palestine and Kashmir respectively, all terrorizing and killing the Muslim civilians and refusing to quit the alien lands under their terror military occupation, on August 08 Russian military entered Georgia, a former constituent of USSR. Russian troops poured into South Ossetia hours after Georgia launched a large-scale offensive aimed at restoring control over the province lost after a war in the early 1990s.

The conflict erupted on August 7-8 when Georgia tried to retake South Ossetia a pro-Russian province that threw off Georgian rule in the 1990s. A Russian counter-offensive pushed into Georgia proper, crossing its east-west highway and nearing a Western-backed oil pipeline. Russian troops also moved into Western Georgia from Abkhazia, another breakaway region on the Black Sea. Hundreds of people were killed, tens of thousands displaced and housing and infrastructure wrecked in the fighting. Tbilisi accuses Russia of launching a war against it. Georgian officials were assessing the scale of the damage from the fuel train blast, which could potentially disrupt a key trade route for oil exports from Azerbaijan to European markets.

Russian troops poured into South Ossetia on August 08, rebuffing an attempt by Georgia's military to reclaim South Ossetia by force. Having routed Georgian units in the separatist region, the troops then moved into Georgia proper, saying it needed to destroy Georgian military bases and positions near the towns of Gori and Senaki to protect South Ossetia from further attacks. With Russian forces firmly entrenched in its heartland, Georgia remained locked in a tense atmosphere, leading the government in Tbilisi to call for international intervention. Russia also sent fresh reinforcements overnight, which had reached the regional capital Tskhinvali where fierce battles rage. Russia said it had driven Georgian forces from the capital of South Ossetia on 09 July as part of an operation to force Georgia to accept peace in its breakaway region.

In Gori, the birthplace of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Georgian officials accused a contingent of Russian paratroopers of mining and looting the town instead of honoring an agreement to pull out and hand over authority to the Georgian police force. Russian forces also continued to hold the western towns of Zugdidi, Senaki and Poti, but the situation there was more relaxed. Residents said they were desperate because the town had been deserted by much of its population of more than 40,000. Russian troops were collecting weapons and military equipment left behind by the Georgian army when it retreated from South Ossetia after being overwhelmed by Russian troops last Friday. "They left everything, 1,000 American-made rifles, 40 armored personnel carriers and ammunition.

Georgia's parliament voted unanimously to pull the country out of the Russia-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States. Gia Nodia, Georgia's education and science minister, said that while Tbilisi had suffered human and territorial losses, a positive outcome could be that the conflict had ended uncertainty about the country's relations with Russia. Yet Nodia was skeptical that relations with Moscow would improve soon and accused Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of having a "personal obsession with Georgia.” As long as Putin is in charge, being Russia-friendly means being subservient to and slavish to Russia," he said.

U.S. State Department called in a top Russian diplomat to urge Moscow to halt military involvement in the conflict that erupted in earnest. Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili called the U.S. president to discuss the situation in his country and Bush "reiterated United States support for the government and people of Georgia. Russia defied U.S. demands for an immediate pullout of its troops from Georgia, saying extra security arrangements were needed before a withdrawal could begin.

From the EU, Poland, Lithuania and sent their leaders, along with Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko, to appear alongside Saakashvili at a rally in support of Georgia's conflict with Russia. While some EU countries have called for European peacekeepers or monitors for Georgia's two rebel regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, there was no indication Russia, which has the upper hand militarily, would accept such a move.

Washington has called a special meeting of NATO foreign ministers to discuss the Georgia crisis without Russia. The US said it would veto a Russian resolution at the UN Security Council seeking to implement a six-point ceasefire plan. Russia has reiterated its opposition to a rival French text, which reaffirms Georgia's territorial integrity. Diplomatic efforts at the UN have reached deadlock over rival resolutions on the crisis from France and Russia. Russia has said it has ended its military operations in Georgia after agreeing to a ceasefire brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Georgia and Russia agreed in principle to an EU-brokered peace plan over South Ossetia as the U.S. showed disapproval of Moscow's attacks on its neighbor by canceling a joint naval exercise. Speaking to reporters in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Lavrov said Russia was not going "shut any doors" to future co-operation with NATO. But he warned that the alliance had to decide what was more important to it - supporting Saakashvili or developing a partnership with Russia.

Kremlin Justifies Action

Moscow defended its invasion of Georgia to protect Russians there. Russia's military response to the crisis dramatically intensified a long-running stand-off between Russia and the pro-Western Georgian leadership that has sparked alarm in the West and led to angry exchanges at the United Nations reminiscent of the Cold War. Each side blamed the other for the outbreak of fighting in the pro-Moscow enclave, which broke from Georgia as the Soviet Union neared collapse in the early 1990s.

Russian president Dimtry Medvedev said the Russian military had taken control of Georgia's separatist province of South Ossetia. "We have completed a considerable part of the operation to force Georgian authorities toward peace in South Ossetia," Tskhinvali has been taken under control by a reinforced Russian peacekeeping force. Georgia reported that Russian jets had earlier entered its airspace and dropped bombs on the breakaway province, injuring seven people. President Mikhail Saakashvili accused Russia of conducting a large-scale military operation and announced full military mobilization. Georgian artillery shells have reportedly killed several Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia as the nation's battle with separatists escalates.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was not seeking all-out war with Georgia. Russia has so far resisted repeated calls for formal recognition by South Ossetians and Abkhazians, although Kremlin officials have hinted that the Western recognition of Serbia's breakaway region of Kosovo has created a precedent. Russia encourages South Ossetia to join Russia by aligning itself with North Ossetia in Russia and is the main backer of South Ossetian "separatists". The majority of the population, ethnically different from Georgians, has been given Russian passports. Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers to discuss pleas by Georgian “separatists” for Moscow to recognize their independence could also adopt less radical resolutions, leaving the Kremlin to handle relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, having full-scale ties without formal recognition. That would mirror the way most states deal with Taiwan, which China considers as a renegade province. Moscow says its armed intervention averted a "genocide" of Ossetians by Georgia, and Russian leaders have said it is unthinkable the rebels would agree to reunite with Georgia.

Russian warplanes widened the offensive outside the immediate conflict zone to include strikes deep inside Georgia on the second day of fighting. Jets carried out up to five raids on mostly military targets around the Georgian town of Gori, close to the conflict zone in South Ossetia. Russian targets included a military base and airport near the town of Senaki, the Shiraki airfield, a tank battalion based in Gori and a civilian radar station near Tbilisi, the ministry said.

Moscow closed its land border with Georgia and neighboring Azerbaijan to citizens who are not from the CIS, a grouping of former Soviet states. A decree signed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the move was needed to "prevent weapons smuggling and members of foreign terrorist organizations from entering Russia." The head of Russia's main domestic spy service, the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov ordered extra security to foil what he said was a plan by Georgian security to carry out "terrorist acts" inside Russia. Georgia dismissed the accusation as "complete nonsense." However, Ukraine threatened to block the return of Russian warships to their Black Sea base at Sevastopol saying it did not want to be "drawn into a military conflict".

President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to the Russian military operation in Georgia, saying troops had accomplished their mission of restoring safety to civilians and its peacekeeping forces in Georgia's breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia that have declared independences. Medvedev ordered Russian troops to step down just before a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who flew to Moscow to mediate peace talks. But Georgia cast doubt on Moscow's announcement and U.S. officials could not confirm the Russian attacks had stopped. In Tbilisi, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili painted the setbacks as a victory and told tens of thousands of rallying supporters that Georgia would leave the Commonwealth of Independent States. Also, Georgia filed a lawsuit against Russia at the International Court of Justice for ethnic cleansing, and the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said he was considering an investigation into the South Ossetia conflict.

Truce

EU president France, which brokered a ceasefire in the conflict which has killed hundreds of people and made thousands more homeless, called a September 1 meeting of EU leaders to discuss the crisis and review the bloc's relations with Russia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed met with mediator French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, the conflict. Medvedev signed a truce rafted by the foreign ministers of France, Finland and Georgia. with Georgia on 16 August, a definitive step toward ending the fighting there despite the uncertainty on the ground reflected by Russian soldiers digging in just 30 miles from the Georgian capital. Medvedev signed the agreement in the resort city of Sochi, where the president has a summer residence. As a precondition to any negotiations with Georgia, Moscow demanded that Georgian forces withdraw from South Ossetia and the Kodor Gorge, a part of Abkhazia controlled by the Georgian military, and for Tbilisi to promise not to use force to deal with the separatist republics in the future.

The agreement was signed by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili the day before. It calls for both sides’ forces to pull back to positions they held before fighting erupted Aug. 8 after Georgia launched a massive barrage to try to take control of the Russian-backed separatist region of South Ossetia. The Russian army quickly overwhelmed the forces of its small U.S.-backed neighbor and then drove deep into Georgia. The truce says nothing about Georgia's territorial integrity, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it clear that the issue was not open for discussion. Lavrov said Russia would welcome foreign participation in peacekeeping in Georgia's "separatist" republics.

The move followed a NATO call for Russia to respect a peace deal with Georgia and pull out its troops, although alliance members were cool on a U.S. demand that NATO consider scaling back ties with Moscow. Russia has said its soldiers have pushed into Georgia from South Ossetia to build a security zone. The peace agreement permits Moscow to patrol a limited buffer zone between South Ossetia and Georgia proper.

Last week, in a rare sign of cooperation on the ground, Russia and Georgia did conduct an exchange of prisoners on the main road in the village of Igoeti in central Georgia, about 45 km (28 miles) from the capital Tbilisi. U.S. President George W. Bush said some progress has been made in resolving the Russo-Georgian fiasco, but Russia still needs to withdraw its troops. "Now Russia needs to honor the agreement and withdraw its forces and of course end military operations," he said. Rice said the additional security measures referred to a "very limited mandate" for Russian peacekeepers to have "limited patrols" within the zone of conflict until international monitors arrived. She said French President Nicolas Sarkozy told her that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had assured him that Russian forces would begin to withdraw as soon as Georgia signed the agreement. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said ties with Moscow could be scaled back if its troops were not fully withdrawn.

US-NATO reaction

The US has described Russia's actions as "dangerous and disproportionate". US Deputy National Security Adviser James Jeffrey said that if the Russian escalation continued, it would have a "significant" long-term impact on relations between the Moscow and Washington. "We're alarm ed by this situation," he told reporters in Beijing. Russian PM Vladimir Putin earlier suggested it was unlikely that South Ossetia would re-integrate with the rest of Georgia, saying the country's territorial integrity had "suffered a fatal blow".

US president Bush has made a series of public statements criticizing Russia's actions and sent the U.S. military to deliver humanitarian aid into Georgia. Bush said a major issue was Russia's contention that the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia might not be part of Georgia's future. "But these regions are a part of Georgia, and the international community has repeatedly made clear that they will remain so," Bush said. "There's no room for debate on this matter." In its first concrete action of protest, the United States cancelled a Pacific Ocean naval exercise set for next week involving Russia, Britain and France.

The UN had failed to reach an agreement on a Russia-drafted statement that would have called on Georgia and separatists region to halt the war. In Brussels met Rice with NATO foreign ministers and European Union officials on the Georgia crisis. Washington says Russia had inadvertently helped Georgia's bid for NATO membership with its actions. Moscow sees Georgia and other ex-Soviet republics as part of its legitimate sphere of influence and opposes them joining NATO. Underscoring U.S. support for Georgia, two other U.S. ships are due to follow the guided missile destroyer to the port. A U.S. navy warship arrived in Georgia's main Black Sea port of Batumi on 24 August with humanitarian aid as Russia ignored Western demands to remove its remaining troops from Georgia's heartland. The United States and Europe fear the continued Russian presence in Georgia will cement the country's ethnic partition, undermine President Mikheil Saakashvili's pro-Western government and threaten vital energy pipelines criss-crossing the country.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Moscow's military operations in Georgia had jeopardized Russia's integration into international institutions. In a telephone call to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered a Russian-Georgian ceasefire agreement, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has made a pledge his forces will begin withdrawing from Georgia on 18 August. Russian soldiers still control the town's key entry and exit points. Condoleezza Rice, as she stopped in Paris on her way to Tbilisi, called on Russia to honor the cease-fire with Georgia. Rice said that she would ask Saakashvili to sign a cease-fire document that will pave the way for withdrawal of Russian troops. The NATO meeting discussed a U.S. suggestion to punish Russia by suspending alliance ministerial meetings with Moscow. It restated a commitment to eventual NATO membership for Georgia, angering Moscow but pleasing Tbilisi.

Further, NATO has barred a Russian ship from joining its multinational anti-terrorism exercise in the Mediterranean. A NATO diplomat said that Washington had withheld its agreement for the Black Sea patrol ship Ladny to join NATO's Operation Active Endeavor in apparent retaliation for Moscow's military action against Georgia. The exercise, being held this month and next, was first launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and involves anti-terrorism exercises and practicing search-and-rescue operations at sea. The Ladny had already arrived off the coast of Turkey to take part in the operation. NATO diplomats said the U.S. administration had also blocked so far a Russian request for an emergency meeting of the NATO-Russia Council to discuss the crisis in the Caucasus.

NATO has frozen contacts with Russia in a show of support for Georgia, an aspiring member of the military alliance. But despite angry rhetoric, Western states have avoided talk of specific sanctions against Moscow. US said Russia had not completely withdrawn from areas considered undisputed territory and they need to do that.

Russian Interests

Russia says its withdrawal of combat troops from Georgia is going according to plan and that it is not prepared to increase the speed of the operation. Russia's defense ministry said it had complied with the pullback set out in a ceasefire deal brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Meanwhile, Russian warships were deployed off the Georgian Black Sea coast. Russia crushed Georgian forces and pushed on further, crossing the country's main East-West highway and moving close to a Western-backed oil pipeline. "Peacekeeping checkpoints in the security zone have started carrying out the tasks set before them.

Russian soldiers held positions deep inside Georgia's heartland, drawing accusations from Washington that Moscow's military pullback did not match up to what it had promised. Russian checkpoints on the main east-west highway around the key Georgian town of Gori had been removed and the Georgian military controlled the road. But there was no sign of a pullout from Georgia's main Black Sea port of Poti, and Moscow said it had set up checkpoints in a "security zone" extending beyond breakaway South Ossetia into undisputed Georgian territory.

However, Russia says it will permanently station what it calls peacekeeping (around 2,000 troops) inside Georgia as peacekeepers to prevent new bloodshed, but Georgia and its Western allies suspect the Kremlin will use the force to keep a stranglehold on the ex-Soviet state. Georgia says it will not accept any "annexation" of its land by Russia. The continued presence of Russian troops is an emotive issue for Georgians, who threw off Kremlin rule when Georgia won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. It also challenges the growing U.S. influence in the region -- a major overland trade route between Europe and Asia and a transit corridor for oil and gas exports from the Caspian Sea that is favored by the West because it bypasses Russia.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said in a report that the long-term presence of Russian troops would undermine Georgia's statehood. "This should be strongly rejected by Western states as guaranteed to keep the dispute at boiling point, with negative ramifications for wider East-West relations.

Russia has denied any plans to annex Georgian territory, saying it only wants to protect South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a second Georgian breakaway region, from a pro-Western Georgian leadership it accuses of dangerous aggression. Convoys of Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and soldiers left their positions on Friday and headed back into rebel-held territory -- a redeployment Russia said complied with a French-brokered ceasefire deal. "We're peaceful people," said one soldier as he waited for the order to leave the town. "We're peacekeepers." But the Russian checkpoints still dotted across undisputed Georgian territory -- including on the highway linking the capital to the Black Sea -- emerged as the new battleground. Russian troops have started dismantling the closest checkpoint to the Georgian capital, at Igoeti, 35km from Tbilisi. Meanwhile, a top Russian general said that the withdrawal of the bulk of Russia's troops would be complete in about 10 days.

One cannot say for sure if Russia would stay on until South Ossetia becomes officially independent, approved by Georgia.

What Russia wants?

Georgia is a strong ally of the United States and is an aspiring NATO member.
It had, like Ukraine, even sent servicemen to Iraq to support the U.S.-led military operation there, but they have been recalled to beef up Georgia's forces at home.

Russia always questions the legitimacy of NATO as a military organization when UNSC exists for the purpose. USA justifies the relevance of NATO for all time to come and “terrorism” is being cited by it as the crucial issue for NATO’s survival when Moscow-led Warsaw Treaty was dismantled by Russia. Sept 11 was used by the USA to dismantle ABM Treaty to gain and maintain military supremacy of USA. Moscow feels that Missile Shied in East Europe is a new US strategy to corner Russia and hence it opposes NATO missile shields in Poland and Zech Republic bringing US threat to Russian doors.

Moscow sent in troops after Georgia tried to retake its separatist South Ossetia region. The purpose of the bombings of airfields and of shutting down Georgian ports is to prevent Georgia from getting new supplies of arms from its allies. Russia is trying to inflict as much damage as possible to Georgia's military might to prevent it from re-engaging in conflict. "A lot has changed since that time. The world has dramatically changed. The Cold War is no more. But this mentality of the Cold War is deeply ingrained in the heads of some of American diplomats," Putin said. Russia, he said, will nevertheless follow through on its "peacekeeping mission."

President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin put up a united front against the West, which they accused on Monday of improperly backing Georgia, and Putin likened Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Russia's military expanded its presence in Georgia, seizing a military base in the Georgia proper and bombing Georgian military targets. Moscow also moved 9,000 paratroopers and military equipment into Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia. Georgia said that Russian forces had also seized the town of Gori near the separatist region of South Ossetia, a claim denied by Russia. The developments came amid a pledge from a senior Russian commander that Russian forces would not move beyond Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russian planes continued strikes against the Georgian military and industrial infrastructure outside the borders of the separatist regions.

Russia seeks "status quo" that meant that Russia had close ties with a region whose de-facto independence was a thorn in the side of a would-be NATO member. Russia did not need either formally to recognize that independence, or take complete responsibility for South Ossetia's fate. But the consequences of this conflict may mean that vague, undefined, status for South Ossetia is no longer an option - forcing on Russia a change in a relationship which suited it rather well.

Despite repeated demands for a complete Russian pullback to positions before the conflict, the West lacks leverage over a resurgent Russia whose oil and gas it sorely needs. The Kremlin said replacing Russian peacekeepers was not discussed. Russia has earlier said South Ossetians and Abkhazians would only accept Russian peacekeepers. Particularly worrisome for Tbilisi and the West is a checkpoint set up at the port of Poti, which lies outside the security zone Russia says is covered by its peacekeeping mandate and is hundreds of kilometres from South Ossetia. Though not Georgia's busiest port for oil, Poti can load up to 100,000 barrels per day of oil products, which arrive by rail from Azerbaijan. It is also the gateway for merchandise moving to Georgia, other Caucasus republics and Central Asia.

The Russian military campaign has been popular at home. Russia drags its feet in pulling out its troops to keep economic and social pressure on Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and on his pro-U.S. government, which Moscow strongly dislikes. Moscow may not intend to leave and is more likely to advance its forces on the Georgian capital, something Russian commanders have always said they do not plan.

Most people in the two rebel regions hold Russian passports and do not want to be part of Georgia. In a separate development, South Ossetia and Abkhazia - another Georgian breakaway region - held mass rallies calling for independence. During his time as president, Putin is thought to have had a particularly poor relationship with his Georgian counterpart, Mikhail Saakashvili. Saakashvili's close ties with the United States, and ambition for Georgian NATO membership, pretty much sums up everything Putin condemned when he made a speech at the Munich Security Conference last year.

Russia also has its own disastrous experience of a separatist war in the Caucasus - in Chechnya. From that conflict, Russia knows the challenges of facing a smaller, but determined, enemy. Russia's military strength dwarfs that of Georgia - but Georgia has spent massively on its army. Some of its officers have traveled to the US for training. Especially given the nature of the size and the terrain of the region where the fighting is going on, Russia would by no means assured of an easy military victory - if that is the way it decided to seek a solution.

In an interview with the BBC, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said given this antagonistic atmosphere, Russia wanted to teach Georgia a lesson. Lavrov said: "If you want us to like the people who started this aggression in South Ossetia, killing Russian peacekeepers, I don't think we would be positively considering the offer." Medvedev suggested sending a mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to South Ossetia. Medvedev, meeting the leaders of the State Duma factions in the Kremlin, cautioned the West not to flirt with "aggressors." Georgian forces, whom Russia accuses of attempting to reclaim the separatist region by force, shelled the bases of the Russian peacekeepers.

Russia is clearly angered by the way this conflict has developed, but its way forward is not obvious. Before Kosovo's independence, Moscow insisted that South Ossetia's status should be considered along with that of Kosovo. Russia bitterly opposed the secession of a region of Serbia. If it now decided to support the secession of a region of another sovereign state, it would leave itself open to the charges of "double standards" it so often lays at the West's door.

Russia supports Independence moves?

President Dmitry Medvedev signaled that he would support independence bids by Georgia's "separatist" provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as Russian troops roamed in Georgia proper, prompting outcries that Moscow was violating a truce reached with Tbilisi this week. Medvedev told Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh and his South Ossetian counterpart, Eduard Kokoity, in the Kremlin. The two "separatist" leaders were in Moscow to sign a document outlining the principles for a settlement of the Russian-Georgian conflict. Abkhazia and South Ossetia have long sought to be recognized as independent states. Russia never objected to their bids but formally pledged to respect Georgia's territorial integrity. Recognizing the separatist republics would not contribute to Russia's security and economic interests in the region and would come at great diplomatic cost.

As one of the most important powers of the world, Russia has a positive role to play in world politics especially in streaming the global freedom movements and not to limit its activities only to areas where its meager national interests augur well, like in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It should support Kosovo, Kashmir and of course, Chechnya.
- Sri Lanka Guardian