Moscow, Monday August 18 2008
The crisis between Russian and Georgia over the break-away region of South Ossetia – and riding on the back of that, Abkhazia – has dominated the world's attention in the past ten days.
Russian tanks and armour are deep inside Georgian territory proper and the Kremlin is dragging its heels over the withdrawal that western world leaders are demanding.
For readers of the western press the overriding impression is that Russia has attacked its small southern neighbour and ushered in the sort of brutal ethnic cleansing last seen in the separatist areas 15 years ago (see previous post from Abkhazia in June).
It seems that already most western leaders and opinion makers are overlooking the fact that it was Georgia’s military assault against South Ossetia – targeting both civilian areas and bases occupied by Russian peacekeepers who had been stationed there alongside Georgian peacekeeprs – that provoked Russia’s response.
Clearly Vladimir Putin – Russia’s former president, current prime minister but de facto leader – was delighted when Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili gave him the accuse for ordering an armed incursion into Georgia.
That Russia has long been backing South Ossetian separatist provocations – roadside bombs, attacks on Georgian military installations etc – on Georgian territory around the separatist enclave, is not in doubt. That Saakashvili – renowned for his hot temper and less than mature emotional character – should respond in precisely the way that suited Russian foreign policy aims was, sadly, in little doubt either.
Russia has done itself a grave disservice by going well-beyond what might have been considered a proportionate response; by arming and encouraging groups of North Ossetian and other ‘irregulars’ who have reportedly been killing, looting and raping in the wake of the Russian military advance.
The Georgians are not innocent of similar horrors – although with a few notable exceptions this is largely unreported in the western press. For a fine example of balanced reporting on the conflict see Mark Franchetti’s story in the Sunday Times of August 17, link here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4545980.ece
For the majority of Russians – starved as they are of the full picture, with Kremlin-controlled national television concentrating on footage from South Ossetia and ignoring the Russian aerial attacks in Georgia – the story is one of a justified Russian response to a heavily armed attack on civilians in South Ossetia, many of whom hold Russian passports.
The attitude here can be summed up by the response of most ordinary Russians: “If the west backed independence in (Serb separatist area) Kosovo, why not South Ossetia?”
That there is little or no tension between Russians, Georgian and Ossetians in Moscow or elsewhere (where as the Moscow Times reports members of the different ethnic groups have been working together to put together aid shipments) reflects the political roots of the conflict: Saakashvili allowed himself to be pushed into starting the war and, unsurprisingly, the Kremlin leapt at the opportunity to pursue long-held ambitions to begin rolling back some of the territorial and egotistical setbacks Russia has suffered since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
It is also worth noting that Saakashvili by no means enjoys universal support in Georgia. When I was last there in December shortly before the presidential election and just after major disturbances on the streets of Tbilisi during a stand off between the opposition and the administration, many ordinary Georgian’s voiced their disdain for the American-educated lawyer. Some government employers spoke of the culture of fear that Saakashvili’s administration had installed in Georgia. Only last month I spoke to an academic from Tbilisi who fled to America with her husband after being harassed by Georgian security services for speaking out against Saakashvili.
Talk in the western media of a fledgling democracy being crushed by the hawks of the Kremlin fail to understand the nuances of this tragic story.
Had Saakashvili pursued a more clever policy over South Ossetia – relying more on European-backed diplomacy and less on a rush to join NATO, which has been read as an aggressive step by the Kremlin – the status of the separatist territory and that of Abkhazia may have been resolved peacefully.
The war was a tragedy. As ever, ordinary innocent people have died for the ambitions of politicians. And, as the following story on part of the Russian reaction to the war illustrates, their deaths as ever are used to forward those ambitions.
RUSSIA HONOURS DEAD HERO:
To his friends he was a brilliant young officer with a promising career
ahead of him. To his wife Ekaterina he was the father of a two year old daughter. To a group of civilians ambushed in South Ossetia on the day President Dmitry Medvedev ordered his troops to invade Georgia, he was a hero: Russian army Major Denis Vetchinov died saving their lives in a horrific ambush in Tskhinvali.
On Friday (Aug 15) the 32 year old Kazakhstan-born major from the 58th Army group was buried in accordance with his wife’s wishes with full military honours in Volgograd the Russian city that as Stalingrad came to symbolize heroism in war time – after President Dmitry Medvedev named him a Hero of the Russian Federation.
Russia’s highest award for bravery in wartime – equivalent to Britain’s Victoria Cross and formerly known as the Hero of the Soviet Union – is a rare award but
Major Vetchinov’s was one of two awarded for combat during brief but bitter war with Georgia.
The other recipient, Lt Colonel Konstantin Timerman, survived the war as did dozens of other soldiers who received lesser awards for distinguished service during the five days of combat.
But it was Major Vetchinov’s sacrifice that last week came to symbolize
Russia’s pride in what it sees as a heroic operation to restore peace and stability to South
Ossetia and Georgia’s other Russophile enclave Abkhazia in the face of what the Kremlin has portrayed as aggressive military adventurism by Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili.
“He was kind, gentle and fair and always wishes people to be better
than they are in reality and did everything to work for that,” his 25 year old widow Ekaterina told Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Still in shock at her husband’s sudden death Mrs Vetchinova who currently lives in Kazakhstan, is planning to move with her daughter Masha to Volgograd, where several close army friends live.
“She needs help and simple human warmth,” said one friend. “She is only 25 and it is very bitter to call her a widow. Her happiness has ended before it had really begun.”
Major Vetchinov, who army friends recall was always keen to be in the
thick of action, was due to enter Moscow’s prestigious joint staff college next year – a key step on the ladder to senior promotion in the Russian army.
“In combat conditions Denis proved to be a brave and courageous officer
capable in any conditions of executing a combat order and of making correct decisions
in critical situations,” said an army friend Alexander Borisenko.
The dead major was also a keen strategic thinker who wrote a brilliant
analysis on the lessons learned during the Russian army’s operation to free scores of patients taken hostage by Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev in the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk in 1995, he added.
Alexander Kots, a Russian war correspondent for popular tabloid Komsomolskay Pravda, whose life the major saved during an ambush in Tskhinvali, paid tribute
to the dead hero.
Speaking to Russian last week from his hospital bed, Mr Kots – an experienced
reporter who has covered Russia’s conflicts in Chechnya, Dagestan and elsewhere –
said the major had not hesitated to act when Georgian troops ambushed a Russian convoy entering the South Ossetia capital on the first day of the war.
“As we entered Tskhinvali on a back road through a wooded area I noticed
some Georgians hiding behind a couple of knocked out tanks. Suddenly we were under fire from all sides. In the scramble to get into our armoured vehicles fell between a troop carrier and an UAZ military jeep,” Mr Kots said.
“The windows of the jeep started shattering and I realized that they
were shooting at me and my colleagues. Shots were coming from everywhere and men – both theirs and ours – were falling all over the place. A couple of our armoured vehicles were hit and started to burn fiercely.”
Deciding to make a run for it Mr Kots came face to face with a Georgian
soldier as he rounded the corner of a burning armoured car.
“I shouted out that I was a journalist – he responded: ‘And I am a killer!’ and opened up on me from just a few yards away.”
Hit in the arm the reporter collapsed to the ground expecting to be finished
off in the next second.
“Nothing happened. I turned my head and saw the Georgian lying dead
and heavily wounded Russian major, blood flowing from wounds in the head and knee.”
Still not safe Mr Kots, the major and a several other Russian reporters
clung to the ground as grenades exploded all around them. Eventually in a lull in the fighting, the newspaper correspondent was able to make it to the safety of a Russian amoured car where he was treated for his wounds.
The major was not so lucky: he died before reaching medical help.
President Medvedev’s decision to award the dead major Russia’s highest
award for bravery reflects widespread support in Russia for what most people see as a heroic military operation to defend Russian passport holders in a region of Georgia that has long yearned for independence.
As the international community moves to find a way forward beyond the
conflict the mood in Russia is intransigent: Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov bluntly stated last week that Moscow no longer recognized Georgia’s territorial sovereignty, suggesting the Kremlin is prepared to absorb South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Russian media reports from South Ossetia – which remains in Russian
hands despite international calls for the two sides to return to their pre-war positions
– pictured a major operation in full swing to normalize the region under Russian control,
with refugees being assisted to return home, help given for those without proper papers and the resumption of pension payments – in Russian roubles – to the neediest.
The prospect that Russia will simply turn around and leave South Ossetia
seems remote.
Mikhail Yuriev, a Russian business and former deputy parliamentary speaker,
whose book “The Third Empire” foresees the creation within the coming decades of a
Russian empire stretching across Europe from the Pacific in the east to the Atlantic in the west, said bringing the two breakaway regions of Georgia back into the Russian fold had long been an unspoken Kremlin priority.
“I predicted that sooner or later Russia would stop trying to be part of the so-called civilized, that is western world, and at that point start taking back its own territories.The only obstacle to that is the desire of the west – of America – to stop it. Apart from that there are no other obstacles.
“South Ossetia and Abhkezia will never be part of Georgia again. Russia may not annex them but instead will find it better to recognize their independence.”
Ordinary Russians agree: Valeri Buyenevich, 44, a hospital anaesthetist from Astrakhan, southern Russian said: “In Europe there is a precedent for separatist regions: Kosovo. If Kosovo can be independent then why not Southern Ossetia and Abkhazia?”
Major Vetchinkov’s bravery award comes at a time when Russia’s beleaguered
military sorely lacks such apparently unsullied heroes.
After the debacle in Afghanistan 20 years ago and the more recent moral and military minefield of the war in Chechnya, Russia’s army is a demoralized conscript mass.
The violent hazing of new conscripts – such as the notorious incident last year that left a young soldier castrated and a double amputee after a severe beating by more senior men – has stained the reputation of an army that still rests of the laurels of its World War Two victories.
Now flush with oil wealth the Kremlin is determined to put the military
back on its feet.
Last year then President Vladimir Putin announced plans for a £100 billion arms programme over the next seven years to pay for new, modern weapons and ordered military chiefs to ‘strengthen the battle-readiness of the army and navy’.
On a small scale last week’s war with Georgia has done just that.
A shorter version of this story was published in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/2569650/Russian-soldiers-who-died-in-Georgia-conflict-hailed-as-heroes-by-Kremlin.html
