With Total Victory Achieved, Russia 'Withdraws'

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Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, France

With Total Victory, the Russians 'Withdraw'

"The Russian Prime Minister is giving the West a taste of its own medicine, since he has never fully digested the independence of Kosovo … Caught in the web of its own diplomatic contradictions, the West has no other solution than to retreat from the Russian ogre."

By Olivier Picard

Translated By Molly Smith

August 13, 2008

France - Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace - Home Page (French)

The fact that Russia agreed to a ceasefire is not in any way a setback, a gesture of goodwill, much less a concession to peace in the Caucasus. It is simply an acknowledgment of total victory. Why would Moscow decide to continue fighting when it has already achieved all of its objectives in record time?

Georgia has been brought to its knees. Its ruined sovereignty at the mercy of Russian tanks. President Saakachvili lost his gamble and now finds himself stuck in deep water. By evacuating his troops from South Ossetia after his attempt to restore control there, he granted de-facto autonomy to the separatist province, thus enabling the Russians to take back control without even annexing it to North Ossetia. A thorn in the side of the Kremlin, the Georgian president continues to struggle, but his hands (and feet) are truly tied. This ally of the U.S. can kiss good-bye any chance his country had of joining the Atlantic alliance. NATO has fully understood the determination of Moscow, and is unlikely to challenge its control of the region any time in the near future.

SOME DAILY SHOW HUMOR IN THE GEORGIA CRISIS

The Medvedev-Putin duo has also gained ground against a Europe that wanted to teach it a lesson. The current president of the E.U., French President Nicolas Sarkozy, realized yesterday that he would have no mediating role to play in a war that Russia dominated from A to Z.

Medvedev didn't even wait for Sarkozy's arrival in Moscow to unveil his plans. The French head of state barely managed to get an outline of Russia's diktat before it announced its strategy to end the conflict. It was no pleasant task to have to go to Tbilisi to bring the news to Tbilisi, but he fulfilled his task with the rigor of an airborne messenger. If Europe does intervene, it will be on the margins in regard to humanitarian issues, but certainly not to define the composition and duties of an international intervention force. That is something Vladimir Putin doesn't want.

The Russian Prime Minister is giving the West a taste of its own medicine, since he has never fully digested the independence of Kosovo, which the E.U. and U.S. imposed on him by giving him the arm of honor [bras d'honneur, an obscene gesture with the arm, similar to the middle finger] to his opposition to the project. Since the principle of respecting national borders wasn't respected for Serbia, why should it apply to Georgia? Since the independence of Kosovo vis-à-vis Belgrade has been recognized, because Albanians are in the majority, why should the South Ossetians remain Georgians?

Caught in the web of its own diplomatic contradictions, the West has no other solution than to retreat from the Russian ogre.

CLICK HERE FOR FRENCH VERSION

FROM AROUND EUROPE ON THE GEORGIA CRISIS:

Rceczpospolita, Poland

Banish All 'Magical Thinking' Regarding the Russian Bear

http://worldmeets.us/rzeczpospolita000005.shtml

Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland

'Enormous Error' of President Bush's 'Georgian Protege'

http://worldmeets.us/gazetawyborcza000018.shtml

Cotidianul, Romania

Georgia Can 'Kiss NATO Goodbye'

http://worldmeets.us/cotidianul000002.shtml