Georgia to sever diplomatic ties with Russia: Matt Brown

Today, Friday, August 29, 2008 Georgia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Nato Chikovani, said that Georgia’s Parliament voted unanimously to break all ties with Russia calling it the “aggressor country.” Recently Russia has come to the aid of South Ossetia, a breakaway region in the south of Georgia, sending its military to aid the overthrow of Georgian rule in the area. Of course Georgia has taken offense at Russia’s aggressive troop deployment in the region. Meanwhile A five-day war has been raging in South Ossetia, a war that Russia has incited and continued by giving aid to the region. Allegations have surfaced that Russia plans to absorb the breakaway nation in a few years. This is the biggest crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1991 Soviet collapse.

In my opinion, Russia needs to not incite revolution and separation in former Soviet nations. Russia’s plan to absorb the province of South Ossetia is one that is close to imperialism if not actually imperialism. Russia’s aggressive stance in this conflict cannot be tolerated, but I think that Russia knows that the western nations have no military might to spare in the region, which will give Russia diplomatic confidence. If Russia is allowed to absorb regions in Georgia without any military opposition from western nations then they may not stop at just Georgia. We all know propaganda is very powerful, and Russia is no slouch at utilizing it. If any other regions of the former Soviet Union show dissatisfaction with their governments then Russia can and will act. Meanwhile, The U.S., the largest military power in the west, is already tied up in Iraq, and thus is virtually taken out of the picture if action must be taken. If Russia is allowed to continue with this trend of obtaining unsatisfied regions outside of their own territory then we might have a serious global conflict on our hands. Leave it to Russia to incite untimely, unwarranted, unnecessary unrest at a time when global conflict is so delicately balanced on the edge of a knife. I also worry that Russia’s sudden aggression is due to the policies of newly elected President Dmitry Medvedev. This may be a new age of Russian conflict using good intentions to mask greedy territorial expansion. This sounds very similar to what the U.S. is doing, but not for territorial expansion, rather economic expansion. I feel that we were mistaken in our invasion of Iraq, and Russia following suit is not what the world needs right now.

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