Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution extending the presence of a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Abkhazia. At issue was the language used to describe the mission. Georgian leaders wanted it to continue to be called the “United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia,” while Russian officials wanted the description to reflect Abkhazia’s independence. Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly I. Churkin had this to say to the Washington Post:
Alexander Lomaia, Georgia’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the New York Times:
“It is very unfortunate and alarming that the Secretariat has submitted to Russian blackmail.”
Of the 15 Security Council members, the 10 who voted in favor of the resolution were Austria, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, France, the UK and the US. Abstaining were China, Libya, Uganda and Vietnam.
Subscribe by Email
One Comment
Couple points:1. I agree with Churkin that Georgia did, in fact, lose any right to claim that S.O. and Abkhazia are part of Georgia proper when it unilaterally opened fire on sleeping civilians; regardless of the tensions that existed between, S.O. rebels, the Russian military, and the Georgian military before August 8th. Saak unnecessarily threw the first punch and he has to live with the consequences.Russia’s position is very simple and logical. Sakashvili is the equivalent of an unrepentant wife-beater who finally has been stopped by the wife’s friend after he beats the crap out of his wife one last time after many years of physical and mental abuse. Any legal claim by the wife-beater that there is still a marriage has been superseded by the moral rights of the wife to leave the husband and seek shelter with friends. The husband has forfeited all his rights in the marriage.NATO’s continued support of said wife-beater is the equivalent of it paying for the wife-beater to take karate lessons even after it is public knowledge that the husband is a bullying thug.Russia had been trying, in vain, over the past couple of years to engage the international community on the issue of how best to handle claims of sovereignty by regions/republics like South Ossetia, Kosovo, Trans-Dniester, Abkhazia, the Basque region, etc. America told Russia to shut-up and sit down and then unilaterally declared Kosovo a sovereign country. This is simply another example of Bush and Cheney’s misguided ideological extremism in action.Finally, why would anyone trust Sakashvili that he wouldn’t launch another violent attack were Russia to leave? No sane person would believe him. Therefore, Russia is right to stay.2. While we’re at it let’s clear up another little fabrication of the La Russophobe wingnut crowd. Namely, that Russia wants to invade and take-over Georgia and turn it into its southern-most oblast.Were such a claim to have any merit then the logical amongst us would assume that Russia would have pushed forward last August and captured Tbilisi. If, as these pro-NATO extremists constantly claim, Russia were belligerently expansionist then they need to provide a credible answer on why Russia didn’t finish the job when it had Georgia by the short hairs.The reality is that the Russian government doesn’t like or trust Sakashvili, that it is concerned when civilians (some of whom are Russian) are slaughtered on its borders, and that it is not interested in taking-over or capturing Georgia.Enough already. Time to move on. Kosovo, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia are now all independent countries.3. For an alternative take on the La Russophobe fairy-tale that Georgia is simply a little country in the Kavkaz struggling against the big bad bear to establish a Jeffersonian democracy, see the following link:http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-obama-should-learn-from-past.htmlThe reality is that Georgia is a great country. The reality is that South Ossetia and Abkhazia are always great countries that should have been granted independence in 1991 along with the other republics given such an opportunity.There are two preconditions to resolving this conflict:1. Georgia holds new elections2. Georgia accepts that there is a 3 state solutionIf the Georgian people want to vent their frustrations they should not vote for Saakashvili in the next election.