Thursday - August 14, 2008

The West must support Georgia and spell out costs of Vladimir Putin’s actions.

THE FOLLOWING IS THE EDITORIAL FROM TODAY’S TELEGRAPH.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO FOLLOW THE COMMENTS AS WELL. GET SOME IDEA OF PPL’S THINKING HERE.

The most telling support for the beleaguered Georgian government has come from Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They, after all, have first-hand experience of living under the Russian boot.

Elsewhere, America has taken the lead in denouncing the annexation by Moscow of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. George W. Bush, who visited Tbilisi in 2005, said he was dispatching his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, to the Georgian capital, and yesterday saw the landing of the first American military aircraft, carrying humanitarian aid.

Washington, along with Britain and France, had already cancelled joint military exercises with the Russians.

Meanwhile, the EU has, unconvincingly, taken on the role of mediator. At a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels yesterday, it expressed willingness to monitor the terms of the truce agreed by Nicolas Sarkozy, its current president.

However, Poland and the three Baltic states rightly condemned Mr Sarkozy’s intervention as failing to respect the territorial integrity of Georgia.

The West must now spell out the cost to Vladimir Putin of his revanchism in former “Soviet space”. The talks between the EU and Moscow on a new “strategic partnership” and meetings of the Nato-Russia Council should be put on hold. Russia should be expelled from the G8 and denied entry to the World Trade Organisation.

The first three steps would be a blow to the pride of a country that craves to be considered a great power again. The fourth could also have a long-term effect on a state that is still overwhelmingly dependent on oil and gas. Consider the boost that WTO membership has given to the more diversified Chinese economy.

To treat with impunity what has happened in Georgia will merely encourage Mr Putin to apply the screw elsewhere in the former Soviet empire. The most obvious target is Ukraine, which, like Georgia, aspires to join Nato.

The bone of contention could be the Russian Black Sea fleet’s base in Sevastopol, whose current lease expires in 2017.

Further north, Moscow might be tempted to intervene in Estonia and Latvia in the support of the Russian-speaking minority, and will certainly put further pressure on Lithuania to establish a visa-free corridor between the mainland and the maritime exclave of Kaliningrad.

To forestall further revanchism, the Russians should be left in no doubt that the consequence will be the freezing of their considerable assets in the West.

Diplomatic isolation and financial sequestration are the best means of curbing the sinister attempt to recreate their old sphere of influence.

http://tinyurl.com/5fzd9q

Posted by Drew458     on 08/14/2008 at 12:50 PM   
Filed Under: • Military • Tyrants and Dictators • UK • War-Stories •  
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