Group items tagged

In April 2008, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1808 that reaffirmed "the commitment of all Member States to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognised borders and supports all efforts by the United Nations and the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General, which are guided by their determination to promote a settlement of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict only by peaceful means and within the framework of the Security Council resolutions

South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity flew to Moscow on 23 August 2008 to address the Federation Council of Russia, and in his appeal stated "what the Georgian leadership has done in South Ossetia can only be described as a Caucasian Stalingrad." On 25 August 2008, President of Abkhazia Sergei Bagapsh also made a presentation to the Federation Council. In his address to the Council, Bagapsh stated "I can say for certain that Abkhazia and South Ossetia will never be part of Georgia."[15]

After hearing the aforementioned appeals from both the Abkhazian and South Ossetian leadership, on 25 August 2008, the Federation Council and State Duma passed motions calling upon President Dmitry Medvedev to recognise the independence of both states and establish diplomatic relations.[15][16]

President Medvedev stated that "Western countries rushed to recognise Kosovo's illegal declaration of independence from Serbia. We argued consistently that it would be impossible, after that, to tell the Abkhazians and Ossetians (and dozens of other groups around the world) that what was good for the Kosovo Albanians was not good for them. In international relations, you cannot have one rule for some and another rule for others."[21]

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili considered Russia's move as an attempt to alter the borders of Europe by force. Below are some excerpts from his statement:[32] This is the first attempt on European territory ... since Hitler's regime and Stalin's Soviet Union where a large state is trying unilaterally, with the use of force, to completely crush a neighbouring country and openly annex its territory. This is inconceivable lawlessness and insolence ... Russia has done unthinkable damage to its place in the international community. The question of the re-establishment of the territorial integrity of Georgia and the protection of its freedom — this is not an internal Georgian problem, or a question of Georgia and Russia. This is now a question of Russia and the rest of the civilised world. Georgia's future, is not only the future of Georgia, this is the future of the whole civilised world...

The European Union,[44] NATO,[45] the OSCE,[46] the United States[47] and other countries immediately voiced displeasure with Russia's decision

Comparisons with Kosovo

support Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Ukraine categorically reprobates an adventurous decision of Russia to recognise the self-declared independence and calls for international community to combine efforts in relation to absolute confirmation and observance of territorial integrity of Georgia and implementation of the undertaken international obligations of Russia".

Ukraine does not support the decision of Russia to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. "We are sorry about [the] adoption of such a decision. For Ukraine it is unacceptable therefore we cannot support the position."[215] However, the parliament of Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea passed a resolution, supporting independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, backing Russia's actions in the regions, and urging the Ukrainian parliament to "accept" the independence of these states

October 2009, Ukrainian Ambassador to Russia Kostyantyn Hryshchenko said that "We must not recognize neither Kosovo nor Abkhazia, nor South Ossetia in no case"

 Kosovo President of Kosovo Fatmir Sejdiu said that Kosovo cannot serve as an example for Russia to recognise South Ossetia or Abkhazia. He said, "We have always stressed that Kosovo has special characteristics; that it is sui generis and it cannot be used as a precedent for other conflict zones, areas or regions"

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated that "the question of recognition of states is a matter for sovereign states to decide.

"this is in direct violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions regarding Georgia's territorial integrity, resolutions that Russia itself has endorsed. Russia's actions in recent weeks call into question Russia's commitment to peace and security in the Caucasus. NATO firmly supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia and calls on Russia to respect these principles".[156] In December 2009, following NATO summit it was announced that NATO member states will not recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia and called on Russia to reverse its decision.[262]

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.

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.

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.

NATO is now sending its vessels to the Black Sea to provide humanitarian aid.