Georgia/ Russia: McCain/ Obama
By Paul Wells - Sunday, August 10, 2008 - 0 Comments
I just wanted to nod briefly at the way the South Ossetia unpleasantness is playing out in the U.S. presidential election: as a chance for some fairly nasty mudslinging. Here’s the tale, from Talkingpointsmemo. Discuss.
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Georgia/ Russia: Blame Merkel?
By Paul Wells - Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 2:17 PM - 0 Comments
Edward Lucas, The Economist’s Central and Eastern European specialist, says the current unpleasantness in South Ossetia was made possible by a spineless West.
Our fatal mistake was made at the Nato summit in Bucharest in April, when Georgia’s attempt to get a clear path to membership of the alliance was rebuffed. Mr Saakashvili warned us then that Russia would take advantage of any display of Western weakness or indecision. And it has.
In this view, the villainess in the piece would be Angela Merkel, whose economic politics are centre-right but whose foreign policy often diverges sharply from that of her Anglosphere colleagues. She said at the NATO summit in May that countries “entangled in regional conflicts” mustn’t become NATO members, and she stared down advocates of quick NATO membership for Georgia, including George W. Bush and Stephen Harper.
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Our man in Tskinvali
By Paul Wells - Friday, August 8, 2008 at 2:48 PM - 0 Comments
Actually, for the moment, we don’t have one. But the Georgia Messenger is liveblogging the unpleasantness in South Ossetia, and it will be worth checking in with them for updates through the weekend.
Another Georgia blog here.
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NATO's adventures in the real world I: Proxy war with Russia, anyone?
By Paul Wells - Friday, August 8, 2008 at 10:31 AM - 0 Comments
“If it’s true that Russian troops and armaments have been sent to Georgia, it means that we are in a state of war with Russia,” Georgia’s National Security Council secretary Alexander Lomia told AFP today. Well. Above is an LA Times photo of Russian troops and armaments being sent into South Ossetia, a multi-ethnic breakaway province which Georgia still defines as Georgian territory.
Already both the Russians and the Georgians have exchanged artillery fire and there are conflicting reports about who has the upper hand. Whether the two countries are now at war depends on your definitions, but it’s hard to see how one can be avoided at this point.
The stakes here could hardly be higher, for many reasons, including this one:
