American options in the face of Russian bullying in Georgia range from bad to non-existent.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday ordered a halt to military actions in South Ossetia after five days of air and land attacks that sent Georgia’s army into headlong retreat and left towns, military bases and homes in ruins.
However, even as the Russian momentum slowed in South Ossetia, Russia launched a new offensive in the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia, another separatist region of Georgia, located on the Black Sea coast — where Russia has considerably more strategic interest than in remote South Ossetia, which lies in the north of Georgia, about 100 miles northeast of the Turkish border.
Most Americans barely had time to look up South Ossetia on the Internet before being regaled with tales of Russian aggression in the breakaway Georgia province. But even that simple morality tale gets complicated.
Georgia, whose status as an independent nation dates back to ancient times, was absorbed by the Russian empire in the 19th century after previous Persian and Turkish domination. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Georgia was briefly free before being reconquered by the Red Army and incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1922. It regained its independence in 1991 when the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics broke up into its constituent republics.
But since that breakup, there have been Russians who still dream if not of the return of Communism, at least of reasserting their former role as a world power. While such nationalists may not go as far as advocating conquest of Georgia proper, they have eagerly exploited secessionist sentiment in Georgia itself, turning the breakaway Ossetia region into something of a Russian protectorate.
Given the imbalance of power between Georgia, where the government claims allegiance of about 4.4 million people, and Russia (population 142 million), Georgia’s pro-American president, Mikhail Saakashvili, would have been wise to leave bad enough alone in Ossetia. Instead, he let his U.S.-trained forces begin military action to secure the province Aug. 7. That triggered a savage Russian counterattack.
At Georgia’s request, the U.N. Security Council called an emergency session Monday, the fifth meeting on the fighting in as many days. Of course, what little influence the U.N. may have on the crisis, modest enough to begin with, is further reduced by the fact that Russia, as a permanent member of the security council, can veto any action.
Nobody expects NATO or the U.S. to take military action to defend Georgia. Even if the U.S. wasn’t up to its eyeballs in Iraq and Afghanistan, neither political nor logistical realities would support such an intervention.
That leaves little option beyond hoping that Russia will value its standing in the world community enough to avoid swallowing Georgia whole. Alas, relying on the restraint of Vladimir Putin is a frail reed indeed.
