WEST TELLS MOSCOW: ‘YOU ARE IRRESPONSIBLE’
by Antonella Rampino
La Stampa, Italy
Aug 27 2008
Rome: Predictably enough, in a game in which Moscow’s tactics involve
forestalling the West’s moves, the Kremlin has recognized South
Ossetia’s and Abkhazia’s independence….
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini made no secret of the
risk which the Caucasus may end up becoming "Balkanized," with the
principle of "change of citizenship on an ethnic basis" heading the
list. The minister’s analysis pointed out the fact that the "West has
made the mistake of humiliating Russia for 10 years, demanding that
it provide energy but not play any political role and that anger has
now erupted". There is no threat to Italy’s gas supplies, he said
(and the ENI [Italian National Hydrocarbons Agency] bore him out on
this), rather, Frattini said, "There is a threat to Italy’s security"
and there is also the risk (albeit one which Moscow has denied) that
Russia may shut off the airspace that NATO so badly needs for the war
against the Taleban in Afghanistan. Former Russian President Vladimir
Putin placed that airspace at the United States’ disposal, playing the
go-between with the Caucasian republics, when [US President George]
Bush first decided to launch the "Enduring Freedom" mission back
in 2001.
Many diplomatic sources, speaking under the cover of anonymity, have
remarked that the allies pointed out to Washington that the precedent
of independence for Kosovo from Serbia would entail risks. Others
believe that Bush is playing the Georgian crisis for its potential
impact on the upcoming US election – Republican candidate John McCain’s
wife Cindy McCain’s currently trip to Tbilisi is held up as evidence in
support of that theory. But the danger is that there may be a knock-on,
"domino" effect in the Caucasus, given that the Nagorno-Karabakh with
Armenia, and Transdnestria with Moldova, have placed themselves in
South Ossetia’s wake.