LOCAL EASTERN EUROPEANS SEE BOTH SIDES IN GEORGIA CONFLICT
By Robert Morris – rmorris@thesunnews.com

Myrtle Beach Sun News
Aug. 16, 2008
SC

Whether they have lived here for years or are only serving fast
food for the summer, Russians and Eastern Europeans across the Grand
Strand have been scouring the Internet this week for accounts about
the recent conflict in Georgia.

In the media from their native countries, they read accounts
about the fighting that may surprise many Americans: The South
Carolina-sized republic of Georgia, emboldened by its growing ties
with the United States and Western Europe, suddenly attacked an
increasingly independent separatist region within its own borders.

Innocent civilians, including Russian citizens, were killed by the
Georgian bombs, those Russian accounts say, and Russia was forced to
send troops in to stop the violence.

"We were shocked, because in the American news they said Russia started
the war with Georgia," said Valeriya Binyuk, a 21-year-old economics
student working at Mad Myrtle’s Ice Creamery for the summer. "Georgia
started the war. I think Russia was just protecting its citizens."

In the American media, a completely different story has
developed: Using the first excuse it could find, Russia invaded
Georgia to reassert its faded glory since the fall of the Soviet
Union. Commentators speculate that Moscow is punishing the former
Soviet state for aligning itself with the West and trying to push
so far into Georgia’s interior that the ensuing fear will undermine
support for the country’s anti-Russian president.

Ultimately, elements of each side’s story are likely to prove true
and blame for the conflict will fall on both countries, say experts
and some locals.

Either way, this week’s fighting – and the widely disparate media
accounts of it in both countries – may mark a significantly negative
shift in U.S.-Russia relations.

"In a way, we’ve left one period of post-Soviet history and entered
another," said Bill Richardson, dean of Coastal Carolina University’s
humanities college and an expert in Russian politics. "The Russian
state is just more powerful, and we’re moving back to a period of
tension between Russia and the U.S."

Three-way combat

The five days of fighting in Georgia centered on two regions, Abkhazia
and South Ossetia, which for more than a decade have both had limited
and uneasy independence from the rest of Georgia. The two areas have
significant numbers of Russian citizens.

Around Aug. 3, small skirmishes began between Ossetian separatists and
Georgian forces, and, as casualties escalated, Georgia began bombing
and sending in more forces. Claiming that Georgians were wiping out the
Russian citizens there, Russia sent its armies to aid the Ossetians.

"The Georgians behaved pretty irresponsibly in how they went about
doing this," Richardson said. "But I also think Russia kind of
manipulated this."

By Monday, the Russian army had also attacked Georgian forces in
Abkhazia and even pushed past those regions into undisputed Georgian
territory, killing hundreds with aerial bombing.

On Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy brokered a cease-fire
between the warring countries, but even though the fighting stopped,
Russian troops have continued their advance into Georgia, reaching
25 miles from the capital city of Tbilisi.

‘A bad peace’

As many Eastern Europeans look at the fighting in Georgia, they repeat
the Russian proverb that "a bad peace is better than a good war." But,
they insist, Georgia was killing Russian citizens in South Ossetia,
so Russia was forced to respond.

"Russia is like a third person," said Anna Konchinkova, a fifth-year
law student with a summer job working for Russian-speaking Myrtle
Beach attorney David Canty. "Nobody wants a war."

Dennis Sorokin, a 20-year-old law student working for the summer at
a pay parking lot on Withers Drive, said the people of South Ossetia
should be considered the true victims of the fighting.

"Every country wants to be independent," Sorokin said. "Russia doesn’t
want to be in a war. They have a big territory and lots of people –
they don’t need that tiny country."

Amid the American news media’s depiction of a Russian invasion of
Georgia, the Eastern Europeans said they could only rely on their
home country’s media for news of the fighting.

"When you look at the CNN side, they all blame Russia," said Hovsep
Karapetyan, an Armenian who owns the Euro Foods grocery on Kings
Avenue. "They don’t show you what’s really going on."

Tamara Johnson, a native Russian who lived in Ukraine for 15 years
before marrying an American worker and moving to the U.S., said
Georgia’s plight captured the West’s attention because its leader,
Mikhail Saakashvili, so aggressively sought help from the U.S.

"When children are fighting, who gets mama’s kiss is who is crying
louder," Johnson said. "Georgia is crying louder."

The real rift

Regardless of who started it, the Georgian conflict is universally
seen as part of a widening fault line between the West and Russia.

In recent years, the former Soviet states of Georgia and Ukraine have
elected Western-leaning leaders and sought inclusion into NATO. In
Georgia, an important street in the capital is even named after
President George W. Bush.

After this month’s fighting began, Georgia announced it would break
from the Russian-led federation of post-Soviet states known as the
Commonwealth of Independent States – yet another move that will likely
heighten the tensions underlying the conflict.

"As Russia has become more sure of itself and more secure, it was
pretty clear that Russia was going to begin to assert itself as a
regional power," Richardson said. "The Russian government wanted to
show a potential alliance with NATO wasn’t going to bring them much,
and that the real power in the region is Russia."

Amid the dangers posed by a real shift in diplomatic attitudes between
the U.S. and Russia, some who have lived on both sides worry that
aggressively one-sided media coverage is only widening the divide.

In Conway, Belarus native Marina Hearle’s gallery mixes European art
with her husband’s collection of American baseball collectibles,
and her own paintings are as likely to have scenes from Conway as
from Russia.

"I just wish people would learn about each other more," Hearle
said. "Maybe they would understand what’s going on."

In Karapetyan’s store, amid all the Russian teas and chocolates,
he also stocks bottles of the famed Tkemali hot sauce from Georgia.

Georgians and Russians will remain friends, he said, but the
saber-rattling from the politicians concerns him.

"If they go too far, it’s going to get bigger and bigger," Karapetyan
said. "They should figure out how to stop it."

As Washington and Moscow continue their war of words over Georgia,
the situation could worsen, experts said.

"There’s always the potential for a miscalculation where things can
escalate," said Ken Rogers, chair of the department of politics
at CCU. "Hopefully, the relationship is important enough to both
countries that they will do what they can to make the impact as
minimal as possible. But who knows?"
From: Baghdasarian