Wretchard:
“The affair in Georgia was never about South Ossetia for Moscow. It was about being able to assert their regional hegemony. ”
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We don’t have space here to look back centuries, but let’s glance back a couple of decades in order to critically examine a presumption that Russia simply concocted this issue just a couple months ago as a tactical strategem in the current power plays.
About 19 years ago, on November 10, 1989 (more than two years before the dissolution of the Soviet Union), the South Ossetian Supreme Soviet approved a decision to unite South Ossetia with the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. A day later, the Georgian SSR Supreme Soviet revoked the decision.
On 20 September 1990 (more than a year before the dissolution of the USSR), the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast declared independence as the South Ossetian Democratic Soviet Republic, appealing to Moscow to recognise it as an independent subject of the Soviet Union. When the election of the Georgian Supreme Council took place in October 1990, it was boycotted by the South Ossetians.
On December 10, 1990, South Ossetia held its own elections, which Georgia had declared to be illegal. A day later, the Georgian Supreme Soviet canceled the results of the Ossetian elections and abolished South Ossetian autonomy.
On the night of 5 January 1991, Georgian forces entered Tskhinvali. The fighting in Tskhinvali first resulted in a divided town: An Ossetian-controlled western part and a Georgian-controlled eastern part. Towards the end of January, the Georgians withdrew to the hills around the city according to the Russian-mediated ceasefire.
On 29 January 1991, the Speaker of the South Ossetian Supreme Soviet, Torez Kulumbegov was invited to the negotiations in Tbilisi, but was immediately arrested and charged with inciting ethnic hatred. His trial had been postponed several times before he was released in December 1991.
All the preceeding events happened while Russia and Georgia were part of the Soviet Union, which fell apart in August 1991.
In September 1991 Georgia imposed economic blockade on the rebel region: It disconnected electricity supplies to Tskhinvali and blocked the road by which the city received food and other products. The Ossetians blockaded Georgian villages and several atrocities occurred on both sides. The fighting left hundreds killed and wounded, which created approximately 80,000 refugees on the both sides of the Georgian-Russian border. Georgian forces sat in the hills around Tskhinvali and besieged the city.
On 24 June 1992, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and Russian President Boris Yeltsin met to discuss the question of South Ossetia. A ceasefire was agreed upon and on 14 July 1992, a peacekeeping operation began, consisting of a Joint Control Commission and joint military patrols of Georgians, Russians and Ossetians (North and South Ossetians).
That narrative recounts the developments only up to the situation that existed 16 years ago. Allow me to post more details, and I will continue this historical narrative to the present. I think, though, that this brief history should convince some people here that the Russians do indeed think that this conflict between Ossetia and Georgia is real and that Russia has been involved legitimately.
The above information, and more, about this history is from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian-Ossetian_conflict
