Georgia: The Blame Game

With the international media reporting that Georgian forces are now engaged in direct conflict with the Russian military on the outskirts of Tskhinvali, capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, the situation still remains tense and unpredictable. Yet, with ethnic separatists claiming 1,400 civilians have been killed, views on the conflict remain polarized and ultimately appear to reflect what some see as a conflict over Russian and Western interests in the region.

More alarmingly for some observers is concern that the defacto state of war between Georgia and Russia will destabilize an already volatile region. With Azerbaijan already alleging that the Russian jets which bombed the Vaziani military base on the outskirts of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, took off from Armenia, The Global Buzz believes the concerns are very real.

Clearly something big is happening right now in Georgia but it is not clear from the news reports exactly what is occurring. If this is a full-scale Georgian invasion of South Ossetia, the question is, do the Russians intervene to prop up the separatist regime? If they do, does Georgia - with implicit American backing - go to war with Russia? If they don’t, do the Georgians brazenly take that as a signal that the Russians won’t risk war in Georgia and then try to roll into Abkhazia?

Might a Georgian-Russian confrontation in South Ossetia inspire more unrest in Chechnya? And seeing Russia distracted in Georgia, will Azerbaijan use this opportunity to take back Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia?

Too many questions, not enough answers.

But while some see the conflict as Russia meddling in the internal affairs of a former Soviet republic, many such as Unzipped are starting to blame the clashes on brinkmanship from the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili.

It is impossible to sympathise with Georgia’s not infrequent discriminatory policies towards ethnic minorities […]. At the end of the day, some may say this is not really about Ossetia or Georgia, it’s about USA and Russia. While international politics play key roles in escalating the conflict, there are some essential local issues and responsibilities which Georgian authorities prefer us not to notice.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.