Georgia: Recognition & Recklessness
Although noting that Russia oversteppend the mark by invading Georgia, Registan says that Moscow’s gambit in the South Caucasus paid off. However, the blog notes, it required a temperamental, reckless and impulsive leader such as the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, in order to succeed.
It’s all very pretty and rather deceptive. Medvedev can’t bring himself to mention the years of Russian-fueled or even Russian-committed provocations and cease-fire violations in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, nor does he bother to mention that the reason he was rushing to defend Russian Citizens was because his government had issued, carte-blanche, Russian passports to whichever South Ossetians could get them.
Very clever. And indeed it was—Western countries are still scrambling to respond to Moscow’s very well executed gambit in Georgia. Russia successfully used the only reliable current in Georgian politics: hatred of Russia. And Saakashvili was their willing accomplice. […]
[…]
The problem with this is that Saakashvili has proven himself reckless, easily-baited, and strategically a poor choice for leading Georgia. He is too inflammatory, too willing to berate Europe for not subsidizing his ambitions, too wiling to take catastrophic action with the assumed backing of the U.S. Holbrooke acknowledges this, though he doesn’t see that these are all reasons to reconsider our warm support. Frankly, I still don’t see how Saakashvili can finish his tenure as President, though I could easily be proven wrong.
2 Comments
Jump to comment form | comments rss [?] | trackback uri [?]