Thursday, October 12, 2006

Russia v. Georgia

The President of Georgia, in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal today, neatly summarizes the Asian crisis that no one is paying attention to:

The past week was a trying one for Georgia. Air, rail, sea, land and postal links were severed unilaterally by our largest neighbor, the Russian Federation. Immediately thereafter, Georgians living in Russia were subjected to a form of ethnic targeting not seen in Europe since the Balkans in the 1990s--and the harassment is tinged with even more sinister historical overtones. Hundreds are being deported; business owners are being harassed; schoolchildren are being forcibly registered with local police; women are being gratuitously tested for sexually transmitted diseases; and children are being torn from families.
Regarding the four Russian officers who were accused of spying and detained for 72 hours, Saakashvili explicitly states that this is not the first time this type of thing has happened (emphasis is mine):

In fact, the most puzzling aspect of Russia's latest onslaught is that it was unprovoked. A week ago, after holding a group of Russian intelligence officers for just 72 hours after they were caught red-handed spying on Georgia, my government released them. Regrettably, this was not the first instance when individuals involved in similar--even lethal--acts were detained and handed over to Russian authorities.
This situation to me is reminiscent of China and Taiwan. China wants us to question whether defending tiny little meaningless Taiwan would be worth the destruction and loss of life (possibly to Los Angeles), while Russia similarly wants us to question whether defending tiny little Georgia would be worth losing support in the War on Terror and the Iranian and North Korean nuclear situations, as well as access to Russia's natural resources (read: oil and natural gas).

Another random thought: imagine the outcry if four CIA officers were caught murdering someone in a foreign capital?