Russian Foreign Minister: World Can Forget About Georgia’s Territorial Integrity
by John Little on 14/08/2008Russia is not going quietly. In fact, they’re not going at all:
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the statement Thursday simultaneously with the announcement that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was meeting in the Kremlin with the separatist regions’ leaders.
“One can forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state,” Lavrov told reporters.
The Russians continue to destroy key Georgian facilities under their control:
Scattered explosions were still reported. In Washington, a U.S. official told the Associated Press that the Russian military was apparently destroying airfields and other Georgian miltiary equipment.
Charles Krauthammer believes, correctly in my opinion, that Putin has much more ambitious, and dangerous, goals in mind:
The road to the capital, Tbilisi, is open, but apparently Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has temporarily chosen to seek his objectives through military pressure and Western acquiescence rather than by naked occupation.
His objectives are clear. They go beyond detaching South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia and absorbing them into Russia. They go beyond destroying the Georgian army, leaving the country at Russia’s mercy.
The real objective is the Finlandization of Georgia through the removal of President Mikheil Saakashvili and his replacement by a Russian puppet.
The assistance plans President Bush announced yesterday were positive but bolder diplomatic steps are needed. My hope is that there are also significant, but less overt, initiatives underway to assist Georgia in what looks to be an emerging protracted struggle.
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