Trouble in the Caucasus

Far from Beijing, Russia and Georgia kick-off in South Ossetia. I suspect that this is going to prompt people to raise the whole “should Georgia join NATO” thing all over again. Now, perhaps putting Georgia on the road to NATO membership might have cooled tensions in the region. But the opposite seems more likely given Russia’s likely reaction to what it would see as a provocation. And, frankly, it’s a great relief that Germany, among others, stopped the move to make Georgia a member of the alliance,  given the potential for trouble if Russia and a member of the alliance start fighting one another. It’s hard to argue that South Ossetia is worth the life of a single Coldstream Guardsman.

Strangely, given their enthusiasm for Kosovan independence, both Presidential candidates and the White House are demanding that Georgia’s “territorial integrity” must be “respected”. McCain, of course, blames Russia, but then again, as a friend reminds me, McCain’s foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann was a registered lobbyist for the Georgian government from 2003 until earlier this year.

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Gavin Mortimer

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But it’s not immediately obvious why the South Ossetians must be forced to live in a state they don’t feel part of while the Kosovans* had to be liberated from the intolerable burden of Serb rule.