Russia Always Wanted a War with Georgia

August 22, 2008

August 22, 2008

Dodona Kiziria, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Slavic

Languages and Literatures, Indiana University

Mr. Gorbachev's article "Russia Never Wanted a War" (see New York

Times, August 20, op-ed section, page 23) can be accepted at face

value by those who remember him as "darling Misha" and still credit

him, quite erroneously, with bringing down the "evil empire."

Those who are familiar with the events that took place during the

final years of the Soviet Union, however, should remember (and the

Georgians certainly do!) that it was Mr. Gorbachev who sent tanks to

crush the peaceful demonstration in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on

April 9, 1989. Georgia was demanding independence, and Mr. Gorbachev –

then the head of the Soviet government – could not tolerate such

heresy. Twenty-two innocent people, most of them eighteen to twenty

years old, were hacked to death by Russian soldiers. The name of the

place was, fittingly, "Lenin Square." I do not remember Mr. Gorbachev

bemoaning the deaths of those innocent victims. Moreover, in 1991 he

threatened President Gamsakhurdia that Georgia will have separatist

movement in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He certainly kept his promise.

In the civil war that broke out in Georgian in1991 that lasted almost

three years, Russia played an active role, supplying arms to those

belligerents favoring the separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

After the end of the war Russia claimed the role of peacekeeper in

these regions, but instead of facilitating a peaceful solution of the

problem intentionally exacerbated ethnic tensions, thus keeping

Georgia in a permanent state of instability.

In the 1990s, during the war in Chechnya in which many innocent lives

were destroyed and the city of Grozny burned to ashes (did Mr.

Gorbachev deplore that war with the same passion?), the Russian

government made another "friendly" gesture to its neighbor, one aimed

at crippling Georgia economically. Citizens of Georgia were barred

from traveling to Russia without visas, supposedly because Chechen

fighters could penetrate into Russia from Georgia. Considering the

opportunities open to the Chechens along the porous borders of the

Caucasus, this was a very lame excuse indeed, especially since at that

time no other member country of the CIS was burdened by visa

requirements.

A few years ago the Russian government delivered another blow to

Georgia's economy; it blocked the import of Georgian goods and

suspended all flights and financial transactions with Georgian banks.

At the same time, citizens of Georgia living in Russia legally or

illegally were rounded up by the police and deported to Georgia in

cargo planes. These operations were conducted in a manner that

resulted in at least three deaths and caused great human misery.

Having strengthened its grip on Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the

Russian government never ceased provoking Georgia or creating

additional hot spots inside the country. Russian planes have

repeatedly made brazen flights over Georgian territory, and just two

months ago shot down a Georgian unarmed drone aircraft near South

Ossetia's border, a border that is legally part of Georgian territory.

Had any of these actions been committed by the Government of Georgia,

Russia would have started a war a long time ago. Mr. Gorbachev did not

mention the innocent victims killed, the villages razed to the ground,

towns bombed, houses pillaged and bridges blown up deep inside

Georgia, many kilometers from the conflict zone.

This is not a war launched in defense of South Ossetians who, like

many other ethnic minorities of the region, are derisively referred to

by the Russians as "persons of Caucasian descent." It is a war to

punish Georgia for wanting to be free from the iron embrace of its

"big brother." It is a war Russia has always wanted.