While the world has been caught up in the catastrophic consequences from the Japanese earthquake and the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, several crises and a few potential crises in and around Russia have gone largely unnoticed by the US and Europe. .
Four days ago, the respective presidents of Russia and Poland, Dmitry Medvedev and Bronislaw Komoroski, agreed to establish a 'joint-memorial' to the memory of former Polish President Lech Kaczynski - who tragically died in a plane crash while attempting to visit the site of the Katyn massacre. As that collective atrocity, which has been labeled an act of genocide, was carried out by Russian soldiers on Polish officers and other working professionals less than a year after Hitler invaded Poland in April-May 1940, the nearly 22,000 murdered innocents have haunted Russo-Polish relations ever since. When Mr. Kaczyski's plane went down a year ago near a Russian air base in Smolensk, fear, anger, suspicion and grief seized Poland in its state of mourning. Hopefully, Mr. Kaczynski's untimely death will ultimately serve as a basis for a larger rapprochement between the two countries over the next few years.
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Yet, the behavior of the Russian government is still troubling at best. Less than three years ago, Moscow launched a thinly-veiled proxy war against the Republic of Georgia by brazenly invading Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the Caucausus. Prior to withdrawing its forces, Moscow declared South Ossetia independent and attempted to acquire international recognition for the new state - which would have effectively united North Ossetia (part of Russia) with South Ossetia (then and now part of Georgia) - under the aegis of Russia. Only strong diplomatic pressure by the US, Europe and the world prevented Moscow achieving its political aims through military action.
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In Abkhazia, the situation is quite similar. Both Russia and Georgia dispute each other's claims to the area. The Abkhaz people, similar to the South Ossetians, have been antagonized by both Moscow and Tbilisi alike, and several conflicts have broken out over the last twenty years resulting in atrocities. While no ethnic group is blameless for the violence, the great majority of Abkhaz, Georgians, Russians, Ossetians and others have had nothing to do with the killings and desperately want the conflict to stop once and for all.
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Aside from the continued precarious state of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Moscow is still waging war against Ingushetia - a neighbor of Chechnya and home to an economically downtrodden and politically disaffected people. As most of the population is Muslim, they have little to no interest in being a part of a non-Muslim state. When Chechen warlord Doku Umarov sent a suicide bomber from Ingushetia to Domodedovo airport near Moscow on 24 January (2011), thirty-seven innocent civilians were murdered and more than 180 were injured. Three weeks ago, Moscow raided Ingushetia with its air force and killed seventeen 'militants.'
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Moscow's war against Chechnya, Ingushetia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia has never ended. Through heavy-handed tactics and more duplicitous means, Russia is playing a lethal chess game to maintain its influence in the Caucasus. As such, the US, UN and Europe must once again pressure Russia to seek a political solution in each of these violence-wracked areas.
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A political solution will not only save the Caucasus but it will also save Russia and Georgia as well.
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J Roquen