Russian bear needs a smackdown

John Merli
Published: August 20, 2008

I’ve been watching with mixed emotions the war-mongering underway this month between Russia and Georgia, and so far what it portends is hardly reassuring for the rest of Europe, or the world, for that
matter.

As some of you may recall with justifiable vagueness, I had an opportunity to spend several weeks in Georgia in the summer of 2002, a year before that tiny country’s peaceful Rose Revolution and less
than a year after 9/11 here. I wrote about my travels throughout Georgia as a media consultant to the U.S. State Department., and now all those once-obscure towns and villages we visited are popping up
in the news on a daily basis — from the capital, Tbilisi, where I enjoyed a hilltop apartment overlooking the ancient city, to other towns that have felt Russia’s ugly wrath firsthand in recent weeks: Poti on
the Black Sea; Zugdidi; Kutaisi; and Gori (the hometown of Stalin), where Russian tanks were still blocking roads this week in what must be the slowest military “pullout” on record.

Although Georgia’s basic infrastructure and ailing economy have improved dramatically in recent years, (as I’m told by NATO observers who visit routinely), this tiny nation no bigger than South Carolina
suffered a debilitating blow economically and psychologically after the fall of the Soviet Union less than two decades ago. Factories stood in rust and ruin alongside once-hobbled roadways barely
negotiable by vehicles at 30 MPH. Government corruption was rampant (another symptom plaguing former Soviet states), and a near-total lack of a skilled workforce in technology or related industries
resulted in a jobless rate of 50 percent or higher.

And it probably doesn’t help a small and isolated country that already boasts two hostile neighbors (Russia and Turkey) that Georgia uses its own ancient alphabet.

The mixed feelings I mentioned are prompted by some satisfaction that the rest of the world is now focused, albeit however briefly, on the Russia-Georgia stand-off, which has lasted for centuries. Before
this month, news coverage of the region was nearly non-existence in the American media. Yet Caucasus observers have known for many years that Russia’s disdain for any neighbor promoting a
democratic way of life (and Tbilisi is surely that) has hung down over Georgia like a creeping fog. Russia, after all, is a democracy in name only, and it hardly cares who knows it.

Some in the media have blamed the “miscalculation” of Georgia’s impetuous young president for “waking the bear” with provocative actions against the disputed north-Georgia territories of South Ossetia
and Abkhazia bordering Russia. And while it seems evident that Georgia’s leaders could probably use some graduate courses in diplomacy, hard evidence gathered by NATO and other peacekeeping
interests have uncovered disturbing, tangible evidence that many critics are choosing to ignore: Russia simply could not have undertaken the vast military ground, aerial, and naval attacks that it
committed without many weeks of preparation — prior to any initial movement by Georgian troops within Georgia’s own territories.

This week, a meeting of foreign ministers at NATO Headquarters in Brussels went on record as stating, “We remain concerned by Russia’s actions during this crisis and remind Russia of its responsibility
for maintaining security and order in the areas where it exercises control, especially in light of continuing reports of Russia’s deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure. Russian military action has
been disproportionate and inconsistent with its peacekeeping role…”

And Russia’s continued loitering inside Georgia and the “deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure” far from the war zone has a lot of experts worried. Georgia is only one of several now-independent
nations that once made up the Soviet Union. Neighboring Armenia, the Ukraine, Belarus, Romania and other independent nations remain within Russia’s shadow in more ways than geographically, and
are no doubt shaken by the fact that the world has allowed Russia to get away with its bullying for now.

The world would be wise to erect a giant sign on the Russian-Georgian border for Putin’s shock troops that simply reads: “Don’t let the door smack you on the butt on your way out.”

E-mail John Merli at .