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The escalating conflict in the Caucasus is merely an extension of a multidimensional proxy war between Russia and Georgia since the independence of the latter, and it is a case of Russian irrendentism - a policy based on a nationalist ideology to retrieve lost territory.
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As Georgia gravitated toward the West to enhance its security as a nation-state in the 1990s, Russia employed various tools of coercive statecraft in a thinly-veiled attempt to undermine the burgeoning democratic regime. After the conversion of the former Warsaw Pact to NATO allies and/or NATO friendly states, Moscow was antagonized by the rapid advancement of Western European and American interests in its backyard. As a result, the Russian government developed a strategy to counter NATO-led influence in the Caucasus in order to maintain its presence in Central Asian affairs.
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Since Georgia capitulated under Russian threats to allow Moscow to operate military bases inside its borders more than a decade ago, Russia has covertly funneled weapons and provided logistical support to separatist movements in South Ossetia and Abkhazia for the purpose of weakening the Georgian regime. Hence, the Russian response to the recent attempt by Tbilisi to crush the rebellions in the Northern Caucasus mountains should have been anticipated. If Russia had allowed the Georgian military to effectively subdue South Ossetia and Abkhazia, then it would have lost its primary leverage over Georgian foreign policy. Indeed, NATO may have passed Georgia over for admission recently to avoid inheriting an unstable, ethnically fractured state. On that point, Russia can claim a foreign policy victory.
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Moscow claims the Georgian raid on South Ossetia was the initial provocation, and Russia is simply exercising its right to self-defense. This is not only patently false but also pure propaganda. While a few Russian peacekeepers were likely killed or injured by Georgian forces inadvertently last week, Putin clearly used the skirmish as a pretext to launch an all-out invasion of Georgia with troops, warplanes and ballistic missiles. While the President of Georgia has withdrawn all of his forces from South Ossetia and signed an EU ceasefire agreement, Moscow has balked at any peace proposals. Why? Putin and his figurehead president, Dmitri Medvedev, have calculated ambitions to rollback Western influence and re-establish Russian political and economic dominance in the region.
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The United States, Europe and the United Nations must take a pragmatic yet firm stance on the latest round of unprovoked aggression. Thousands of civilians now lie dead as a result of years of ignoring the rise of Russian nationalism and related militarist posturing. If its irrendentism remains unchecked, Russia will continue to conduct a foreign policy outside the parameters of international law.
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J Roquen
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For an update on the Russo-Georgian War, see the following BBC link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7554507.stm