South Ossetia and Russia: Marry In Haste, Repent At Leisure

Moscow Friday August 29 2008


Russia’s future absorption of South Ossetia seems in little doubt if you watch the ‘body language’ following the Kremlin’s rapid recognition of independence of the Georgian secessionist area this week following the short and brutal war.

Take this outdoor placard that appeared this week on Ulitsa Bolshaya Gruzinskaya.
The poster, which shows intertwined South Ossetian and Russian flags
knotted togther in a flowing ribbon, carries the slogan ‘Tskhinval -
We're With You!’

Local Russians can’t fail to have noticed that the placard is situated on a street that is the main artery of Moscow’s historic Georgian quarter – the name means ‘Big Georgian Street’ and the poster is very close to Tishinskaya Ploschad (Tishinskaya Square) where a massive Georgian-Russian friendship monument, cast in bronze, is situated.

The designer of the monument is Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli – a favourite of Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov - who lives on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya just a few doors down from the old Georgian Orthodox church where Moscow's Georgian community still worships.

Surely no coincidence....

But study the design of the poster: South Ossetia’s colours are firmly knotted into Russia’s. Absorption of South Ossetia into Russia is surely the longer term objective of Kremlin policy.