Putin: Still in Pursuit of Respect
How far will Vladimir Putin push his rejection of Kosovo independence? My own feeling is not very. And even if he does go through with his implicit threat -- to recognize breakaway regions of his favorite punching bag, Western ally Georgia -- Russia and perhaps Belarus will probably be the only nations to do so.President Bush has announced U.S. recognition of Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence yesterday. The largest European countries are likely to follow. Why? Because of Serbia's murderous rampage through Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Putin asserts that territorial integrity is supreme and that, in order to create a separate nation, the country from which it is separating must approve. As an example, he cites the two Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which pulled away during the early 1990s when nationalism was sweeping through the former Soviet Union.
There are only academic and polemical links between these Georgian regions and Kosovo.
I covered the Abkhaz fighting from both sides. While there was brutality, the scale nowhere approached Serbia's pathological violence against its neighbors. And in the end, in 1993, it was the Abkhaz -- backed by Moscow -- who applied ethnic cleansing after vowing not to. They simply put the Georgians in their midst on foot out of the seaside region, and occupied their homes.
One thing I learned from my time in the former Soviet Union is that pride is king when it comes to nationalities. No one wants to feel he or she are under anyone's thumb. In the case of the Abkhaz and the Ossets, the Georgians stirred the pot with their own nationalism. Then the Russians came in with military backing, which continues to this day.
What are Putin's and Russia's genuine beef? That their view isn't accepted in the West. Ultimately, that isn't very compelling. Putin will no doubt continue to protest. And, regarding Georgia as the West's soft underbelly because of the energy pipelines running through the republic and the West's backing for President Mikheil Saakashvili, he'll keep punching there.
Photo: C+H
Rights: Creative Commons
Labels: abkhazia, georgia, kosovo, nationalism, nato, ossetia, Putin, Russia, separatism, serbia
2 Comments:
Steve, here is where you go wrong in your logic in believing Russia and Belarus are the only nations against Kosovo's independence, and in your strong statement supporting independence. China and Turkey both have strong ethnic groups with distinct territories within their borders but will never support independence of said groups. If these two countries support Kosovo, they know it is a slippery slope internally for them and so are apt not to give a nod in favor.
In addition, there are still areas in Europe (Basque), Asia (Uigur) and Africa (Palestinian) that have ethnic groupings wishing for real independence, not just policing and language autonomy, but shall never receive such...and I mean never. The Israeli question is one of the rare times that pure independence was required due to 2,000 years of being without a homeland for the Hebrew ethnic groups. The Albanians of Kosovo have an entire nation already called Albania. There are many areas in this world in the 20th century and even today that were as brutal or worse than the rotten Serbian government during the 90's. The Chinese have some of the worse human rights violations going strong for nearly 100 years yet the west trades with them and turn a blind eye to freedom and the minority, yet large, ethnic groups internally kept down, in addition to the ethnic majority. You know there are many other areas much more deserving and without an "Albania" on other continents. Let's keep the peace and support an autonomous region for Kosovo as the Tatars or the Scottish have, not flat out independence that is unneeded.
Chuck
Welcome Chuck: My point is not that only Belarus and Russia oppose Kosovo independence; a casual glance at today's news demonstrates the opposite -- China and Indonesia, for instance, are vigorously opposed.
My argument regards Russia's implicit threat -- that it will recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia. I am saying that, if Putin goes through with that, only Russia and Belarus will recognize these two breakaway Georgian regions. Therefore, it's not a genuine threat.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment and best, Steve
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