Georgie 2

'Clash in the Caucasus:
Rolling Back The "Unipolar" World
By Mike Whitney

10/09/08 "ICH"

-- - For the past week, Dick Cheney has been traveling through the Caucasus trying to drum up support for punitive action against Russia for its role in the recent fighting in South Ossetia. The Vice President vowed that the Moscow's action "will not go unanswered". Cheney is determined to establish the United States as the regional "cop on the beat", taking charge of all security operations through it's cat's paw, Nato. Neither the Kremlin nor the EU are paying much attention to Cheney's fulminations. The negotiations for the security arrangements and the withdrawal of Russian troops are being conducted without US involvement. On September 9, under the revolving leadership of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the EU hammered out a deal with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to replace Russian soldiers in South Ossetia with 200 EU observers who are scheduled to arrive by October 1. In exchange, Georgia agreed to Russia's demands not to use force against the two breakaway republics, Abkahzia and South Ossetia. Medvedev's unilateral announcement that Russia would recognize both republics as "independent", did not derail the EU peace process. Rather, both sides focused on the withdrawal of Russia troops and seem reasonably satisfied with the 6-point agreement. Russia has not only scored an important diplomatic victory; it has driven a wedge between Europe and the United States. The reckless behavior of Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili has given the Bush administration a black eye and put Nato membership out of reach for the foreseeable future. Saakashvili invaded South Ossetia last month; destroyed much of the capital, Tskhinvali, and killed an estimated 1,500 civilians before his troops were routed by the Russian army. Among the dead were Russian citizens and peacekeepers. Moscow has cut off all relations with Tblisi and President Medvedev has called Saakashvili a "political corpse". The Kremlin now regards its neighbor to the south as an enemy. Cheney's week-long trip to the Caucasus was organized with two objectives in mind; to isolate Russia from its allies in Europe and speed up Nato membership for Georgia and Ukraine. He has failed on both counts. The ashen-faced Veep flew from Baku to Kiev, from Kiev to Tiblisi, from Tiblisi to Cernobbio; rattling his saber and railing in typical Cold War style to anyone who would listen, but his efforts amounted to nothing. No one in Europe wants a confrontation with Russia or another decades-long year nuclear standoff. Besides, Putin has spent the last eight years building partnerships and creating an expansive energy network that provides vast amounts of oil and natural gas to European homes and industries. Europe depends on Russia now and wants to maintain friendly relations. It's different for Cheney who has been seething on the sidelines--bogged down in the Iraqi quagmire--while Moscow has gotten stronger and more independent from its massive energy windfall. Now Russia can fend for itself and has no interest in becoming just another cog in America's imperial machine. When Putin articulated Russia's determination to defend its national sovereignty in Munich nearly two years ago, saying that he rejected the idea of a "unipolar" world, the Council on Foreign Relations and other elite think tanks put Russia on the America's "enemies list" more or less acknowledging that the Kremlin would resist further integration into the so called "international community". (aka-American-led, dollar-based system)Last week, newly-elected Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reiterated the Putin Doctrine word for word as it was originally stated in Munich:"The world must be multi-polar. Single polarity is unacceptable. Russia cannot accept a world order, in which any decisions will be made by a sole nation, even such a serious one as the United States. Such a world order will be unstable and fraught with conflicts.”'

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