Geoff’s (attempted) guide to what’s going on in Georgia

Yesterday I was sat back on the couch, watching Richmond spit in the face of their supporter base, and got a phone call from friends trying to organise a time for us to catch up. During that conversation, I was casually asked “what’s the deal with Georgia and Russia?” I hadn’t heard anything at that stage, so I took that as a challenge. The process of then listening to radio and television news didn’t really give me a lot to go off, so I’ve taken it on myself to better understand what is happening there. This is a little bit outside of what I’d normally do on TheGeoffRe(y)port so feel free to go away now if you don’t want to read any more. Otherwise, read on!

Who?

Georgia, the country that used to be part of the USSR, not the place that Ray Charles always had on his mind. And Russia, the vodka drinking, funny accented post-superpower that is riding on the coat-tails of oil and gas prices to try and become a super-power again. Georgia is significantly littler than Russia, it is relatively democratic, and has made itself good friends with W and the boys in the US of A. Russia is ruled by Vladimir Putin who has never been friendly in his life.

The other party in this mess is “separatist rebels” in the “disputed” region of “South Ossetia”. So the rebels want their own country - in the same way as the Chechnyan rebels did in Russia, and the East Timorese did from Indonesia. Typically in these situations, the Georgians didn’t want that so much, so they’ve been having an argument about this - sometimes with words, sometimes with guns, for quite a while now.

So Why’d This Happen?

Well Russia has been supporting the claims of the South Ossetians for quite a while (no idea if that’s what they’re called, just guessing) - probably mostly because they don’t like the Georgian president. Both sides have been spoiling for a fight for quite a while now. Russia have been handing out Russian passports to South Ossetians for years now - with the understanding that then if the fight gets started, they have rights to come over the border to “protect their citizens”. Georgia on the other hand have been readying themselves by cozying up to Bush and the US administration, on the understanding that if things get nasty, they would be looked after. Russia’s pretty much been putting out veiled threats that if Georgia tried anything, they’ll

So Who Started the Fight?

Well, as far as I can tell (and I am only piecing stuff together from news reports) it sounds like Georgia got a little more agressive in trying to shut down the “rebels” than they should have. I reckon they probably thought the threat of George Bush jumping in to help out would keep the Russians in their place.

But it didn’t. The Russians came out fighting, and used what’s being described as “disproportianate force”. And while it was aimed at hitting military targets, inevitably when you fire enough shells, you hurt and kill a hell of a lot of civillians. Which is why you’re seeing really horrific footage on the news.

So what should I think?

It doesn’t take too much reading to work out that there aren’t any good guys here - it’s much messier than that. Georgia shouldn’t have been so aggressive in “negotiating” with South Ossetia - and if you believe everything that the Russians are saying there are absolute atrocities being committed. But Russia doesn’t really seem interested in looking after the South Ossetians, they are most likely using this as a chance to bring about “regime change”, because they really don’t like the guy in charge. So there’s no easy answers. We’ve all just got to hope and pray that the negotiators work out some way for people to stop killing each other here, else it will get a lot messier: fast.

I hope that hasn’t been too flippant a description of what’s happening in a really nasty situation. War sucks.

Georgia, Russia and the disputed "South Ossetia"

Sources:

• In Georgia and Russia, a perfect brew for a blowup - International Herald Tribune
• Between Georgia and Russia, a tinder is lit - International Herald Tribune
• BBC News | Europe | US warning to Russia over Georgia (map credit too)