The last five days have been rather turbulent for the small Caucasian state of Georgia. What few people realize is that this is an extension of Georgia's problems since the nation gained independence after the Cold War.
You see, two northern regions of Georgia have considerable demographic differences. Abkazia in the northwest is populated by an ethnic group known as the Abkhaz, who in 1992 staged an uprising to create the Republic of Abkhazia, at the same time cleansing the region of Georgian and other minorities. Yes, it's exactly as it sounds. Refugees, murder, and suchlike. The other region is South Ossetia, which has a group known as Ossetians. They also rebelled in 1992 creating their own de facto republic. As a result of thse coups the international community (including Russia at the time) agreed to an embargo on Abkhazia. Needless to say, no government has recognized either region as a sovereign nation.
Fast forward to this year. In May, Russia announced that it was withdrawing from the economic santions that the EU proposed against Abkhazia. This one of the first steps in potentially recognizing the rogue state, and at the same time possibly recognizing South Ossetia. Then it became apparent that Russia had been helping the Abkhaz government in shooting down Georgian spy drones. At the same time South Ossetia had publicly announced it's intent to reunite with North Ossetia, which essentially means that they intend to become part of Russia.
With the prospect of irreparably losing two regions, with Russian support, it seems rational that Georgia would want to quickly put down the rebellions and reintegrate Abkhazia and South Ossetia. So on August 8, Georgian forces entered South Ossetia, and immediately clashed with Russian "peacekeeping" forces. The violence continues.....
But that's only the military aspect of this conflict. The other side is Russia's arrogance and hypocrisy. In the ensuing peace talks between UN representatives and the opposing sides have revealed that Russia not only wants Georgia out of Ossetia, they also want Georgia's president Mikheil Saakashvili out of office. I can't imagine what makes Russia think that it can make such demands on a sovereign nation, but Russia's newfound imperialist colors are now flying for all to see. In addition, Russia refuses to agree to a UN truce because the truce did not forbid Georgia from using force against separatists (See here).
Now that last part just screams hypocrisy. If you don't know what I'm thinking of, take a look at this map.
Situated on Georgia's northwest border lies a little region known as Chechnya. To this day, the Russians are waging a rather nasty war to crush the separatists who have found their own little rogue republic. The difference between this conflict and that between Georgia and Ossetia is that Russians don't have to fight both ethnic insurgents and some meddling third party. For the most part, the outside world has recognized the Chechnya conflict as between the Chechens and the Russians. And certainly, the Russians don't shy away from military force in trying to keep Chechnya in the fold of Mother Russia.
For the purpose of this entry, I will not take sides as to whether Abkhazia, South Ossetia, or Chechnya should be independent. My point is that Russia wants to have its way in the Caucasus, with no regard to the sovereign rights of Georgia. With it's troops in regions that are de jure Georgian territory, Russia is clearly the aggressor in this conflict. The world must recognize this, and treat the Russians as such at any negotiations.
