EUROPEAN PRESS REVIEW: RUSSIA’S RELATIONS WITH WEST IN FREE FALL
Deutsche Welle, Germany
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Aug 27 2008
European editorials are pessimistic about international security after
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev decided to recognize the Georgian
territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.
"Russia’s de facto incorporation of parts of another State is
brutal, but it is also unambiguous," wrote the Financial Times
Deutschland. "There will be no need for the EU to bother trying to
reach an amicable solution or discussing the deployment of peacekeepers
in the Caucasus at its upcoming emergency summit this week. After
yesterday, the subject is closed. There is simply no point trying
to negotiate with Russia, and it would be the wrong thing to do,
even if it there were. The EU cannot discuss easing visa restrictions
or economic cooperation when the other side is proving that it sees
international agreements as mere scraps of paper."
The Suddeutsche Zeitung wondered what the next development will
be. "It is unclear how Russian and the West will claw their way out
of the worst crisis (in relations) since the collapse of the Soviet
Union. Right now, they are in free fall. And that happened because
Moscow chose to demonstrate how it is possible for a government to win
a military victory at the same time as digging its political grave. For
weeks, Moscow has been working itself up into an isolationist frenzy,
venting all sorts of grudges believed to be long forgotten, with
the government and its leader burning all the bridges they had so
carefully built…"
The daily Berliner Zeitung condemned Medvedev’s decision:
"The Russian leadership has referred to the right of nations to
self-determination. It is worth reminding them that the 1989 census
in Abkhazia revealed that living alongside Armenians and Russians, 48
percent of the population were Georgian and only 17 percent Abkhaz. By
2005, there were 45 percent Abkhaz and just 6.5 percent Georgians. The
reason for this development: 200,000 of 250,000 Georgians either fled
during conflicts in the 1990s or were driven out. In South Ossetia,
only 29 percent of the population in 1991 were Georgian. They all
fled after Russia’s military strike on Georgia. So when the Abkhaz
and South Ossetians announce independence based ostensibly on a law
of nations, Russian recognition amounts to sanctioning an expulsion
of people that violates the law of nations."
"Anyone still wondering about the motives for Russia’s war against
Georgia must have realized what is going on by now," wrote Spain’s
center-right daily El Mundo. "Moscow made its decision long
ago. Protecting the Ossetians against massacre was just an excuse
to send its tanks into Georgia’s breakaway regions. Russia is using
military might to redraw the map in the Caucasus. The West is watching
this sorry spectacle unfold — this strategy of the fait accompli. But
Europe and its allies are obligated to defend Georgia’s integrity. The
EU must translate its words into action and take a hardliner stance
against Moscow."
In Paris, conservative daily Liberation was similarly convinced
that the West needs to get tough with Russia: "The Russian
president’s decision to recognize Georgia’s breakaway regions is
sheer provocation (…) These two "states" only exist thanks to
the petro-dollar and the Russian army. Whether in South Ossetia or
Abkhazia, thousands of Georgians in these regions have fallen victim
to ethnic cleansing. Their "governments" made up of collaborators are
mafia-like creations of the Russian secret service. The "ministers"
in South Ossetia are retired Russian generals. What can be done
about it? Moscow’s actions must be condemned, obviously. But first
and foremost, we need to see a debate about future relations between
the West and Russia."
But left-leaning British broadsheet The Guardian suggested that
Moscow might actually be playing straight into the hands of Mikheil
Saakashvili: "In defiance even of Germany and France, which adopted the
most even-handed approach to the Georgian conflict, Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree recognizing the independence of South
Ossetia and Abkhazia. There was little pressure on him to do so. Both
provinces have been independent from Tbilisi since 1991, when the
last hothead Georgian president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, tried to seize
them. Recognition will not make either the Ossetians or the Abkhaz
sleep safer in their beds. It will not do anything to stop the ethnic
cleansing of Georgian villages in these enclaves, which the Russian
foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, condemned yesterday….. Russia’s
actions are handing Georgia a military alliance with the west on
a silver platter. This is the glittering strategic prize for which
Mikheil Saakashvili, the nationalist Georgian president who ordered
his troops to attack Tskhinvali, has been toiling day and night. It
is a prize that he may consider to be worth the sacrifice of two
parts of his country."