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Caroline Yevak

Russias Recognition of Independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia Is Illegitimate They... - 0 views

  • The current situation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia bears no resemblance or moral equivalence to Kosovo's declaration of independence in February 2008.
  • The near-universal support for Kosovar independence stands in sharp contrast to the unilateralism exercised by Moscow over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Kosovo's independence was gained through the U.N. process with prior consultation and widespread unity.
  • When the majority of the European Union and the United States recognized Kosovo's independence, they acknowledged that such independence was the result of tough, tragic, violent, and unique circumstances.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • South Ossetia, with Moscow's assistance, is cleansing the area of ethnic Georgians, thereby essentially copying Serbia's effort to ethnically cleanse Kosovo.
  • Indeed, Moscow is currently considering basing a permanent military facility in Abkhazia.
    • Caroline Yevak
       
      Russian presence in SO & A
    • Caroline Yevak
       
      not parallel
  • Russia has pledged that it will go to any lengths to protect its gains in South Ossetia and Abkhazia
  • , and the West must not underestimate Moscow's determination to make good on that commitment.
  • Europe must quickly recognize that the Georgian situation cannot be undone and that more aggression is to be expected from Moscow.
Caroline Yevak

Abkhazia and South Ossetia: Two Years of Independence, But No Peace - English pravda.ru - 0 views

  • However, the confrontation between Russia and Georgia still remains a big issue. The diplomatic ties between the two countries have not been restored. As a matter of fact, Russia and Georgia still remain in a state of war with each other. Georgia strongly refuses to conduct any talks with S. Ossetia and Abkhazia.
    • Caroline Yevak
       
      independence wont help true conflict of tension between Gerogia and Russia
Caroline Yevak

Russia and Georgia: South Ossetia is not Kosovo | The Economist - 0 views

  • WITH a flourish, Russia this week recognised the “independ
  • ence” of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the enclaves that gave it a casus belli for its war on Georgia
  • The Russians saw it as a logical outcome of their victory, a further stage in their confrontation with the West—and a copy of what happened in Kosovo. As Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, argued, “you cannot have one rule for some and another rule for others.”
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  • Never mind that Russia is itself being incoherent in continuing to insist that Kosovo’s independence from Serbia is still illegal
  • NATO’s air war on Kosovo and Serbia in 1999 was, like the Iraq war in 2003, conducted without the legal approval of the United Nations.
  • Last February’s recognition by many Western countries of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia again lacked formal UN blessing (thanks to Russia’s threatened veto).
  • Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic long oppressed the Kosovo Albanians, as well as perpetrating war and ethnic cleansing right across former Yugoslavia. But it was the Georgians who ended up as the bigger victims of ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia in the 1990s, and have been again in South Ossetia in the past three weeks.
  • Motive provides an even clearer difference. Throughout the 1990s the Americans and Europeans were extremely reluctant to get involved in the Balkans.
  • After Milosevic’s withdrawal from Kosovo in 1999, the main role of the UN and NATO forces in the province was to protect the Serb minority and Serb religious sites. The Western powers devoted years to negotiations over the province’s future, culminating in UN-led talks under Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president. Only when these failed, again thanks mainly to Russian intransigence, did Kosovo’s unilateral independence become inevitable.
  • Russia has nakedly pursued its own interests in the Caucasus. It did its utmost to provoke Mr Saakashvili into a fight. Its “peacekeepers” have made no pretence of protecting minorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
  • The difference between Kosovo and South Ossetia has been starker still in the war’s aftermath.
  • The Russians invaded Georgia in a fever of war enthusiasm; have refused to pull out and rejected attempts to internationalise the dispute; and have now recognised the enclaves’ independence less than three weeks after the war began.
  • bringing in the UN and international peacekeepers.
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