It appears that the Kremlin feels secure enough to drop the pretense of "peacekeeping" in Georgia:
Kremlin announces that South Ossetia will join 'one united Russian state'
This is naked imperialism, by an authoritarian, nationalist state against an imperfectly democratic, smaller state. The contrast between Russia's actions in the Caucasus versus the West in the former Yugoslavia could not be more stark--it will be very interesting to monitor how the Parentis and Johnstones of the world try to spin recent events; chances are, their attempts will be just as clumsy as the efforts of Serb nationalists to convince themselves that Russia's support over Kosovo was principled and sincere.
If there was any doubt that the Yugoslav wars would have implications outside the immediate region, this should erase them. The West waffled in Bosnia, and the forces of reaction, nationalism, and authoritarianism took note. This situation warrants further attention.
1 comment:
"""What the West- including most of the Left- has always refused to do is to acknowledge the singular character of the Milosevic regime: a racially based, proto-fascist formation that can survive only by creating new sources of war and conflict"""
Branka Magas, The destruction of yugoslavia. Tracing the Break-up 1980-92, page xx (introduction)
change Milosevic for Putin and what do you have? Russia in 2008.
then the question is, how can political decision-makers be so unskilled at learning the lessons from History?
what would Milosevic have become if he had had at his disposal Putin's resources?
the similarities are so many and so striking that it is obvious that Putin, as a disciplined and cold minded person (otherwise h would not have made a career in KGB) surely learned a lot from this example...
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