COLD WAR II: TODAY IT WAS GEORGIA, TOMORROW UKRAINE?
By Jeff Thompson
Journal Chrétie
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Aug 25 2008
France
On August 7th we received the startling news via telephone of a major
attack on Russia by the small country of Georgia. The caller repeated
the information they had just heard on RTV, the main Russian television
station. Georgia had attacked South Ossetia and killed 2000 innocent
Russian civilians.
The next day we found a television and watched as the RTV station
ran updates throughout the day. The Russian propaganda broadcasts
made no attempt at objectivity.
"Today the country of Georgia has attacked the Russian people of South
Ossetia, killing thousands and causing a humanitarian disaster. This
is genocide against the Russian people. In response, our Russian
peacekeeping forces have entered Georgia to protect our people and
bring peace against the Georgian aggressor financed and supported by
the United States."
RTV and all major media outlets are owned or controlled by Russian
government approved entities. At the time of the invasion our
small EEO team was conducting a children’s camp in Armenia near the
Georgia border, just 75 miles from Tblisi. In a remote location in
this mountainous region we had no other source of information. Our
village barely had running water much less an internet connection.
I was shocked to hear Russian T.V. announcers including the Minister
of Defense, Sergei Ivanov, repeatedly refer to the "unprovoked attack"
by Georgia as "genocide" against the Russian people. RTV also showed
video of a supposed American made landmine used against Russian
forces. They not so subtlety suggested that NATO and America are
providing arms to a regime hostile to Russia.
Map of the affected region
Armenia is a small country without a seaport. They are wholly
dependent on the Georgian commercial port of Poti for imported goods
and international trade. Nagorno-Karabakh is an Armenian enclave in
Azerbaijan, a disputed territory that like South Ossetia has existed
under a tense and unresolved truce for the last 15 years. They daily
exchange fire in the border zone with Azerbaijan and are unrelentingly
committed to fighting for the independence of Karabakh.
Georgian protest by Parliament Building in London
South Ossetia, Karabakh, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Georgia, Azerbaijan,
Armenia – the Caucuses Region remains a simmering caldron of ancient
ethnic enmity and fiercely independent people. With Caspian oil flowing
through the region to the Georgian port of Poti, the Russians have now
proven that they are indeed the only superpower that really matters
in this part of the world.
As Christians we need to be bold and not shy away from working in this
region of the world, showing Christ’s love in word and deed. As for
politics, well, we need to pray that an emboldened Russian State
does not decide to "liberate" the Russian citizens living in their
neighboring historical motherland "Kyivan Rus," that pro-European
and pro-western country of Ukraine.
Editor’s note: Jeff Thompson, author of "Leaving The American Sector"
and director of the California based mission agency Eastern European
Outreach () recently returned from the Caucuses region
during the Russian invasion of Georgia.
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