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Russia’s Victory Was Overwhelming, Western Media Said
Russia and Georgia took unprecedented risk in the military standoff for South Ossetia. “But while Georgia gambled and lost, Russia's calculations seem, so far, to have succeeded,” the Financial Times reported.
Russia gambled when it attacked the U.S. ally and potential NATO candidate. And the fact that it finally got away with it manifested its dominance in the region. “In other words, it appears that Russia suddenly belongs to the elite club of countries that can write their own rules,” The Financial Times said. NATO’s membership of Georgia that was actively canvassed early this year appears very unlikely today.
“Having established the precedent of defending Russian citizens by the use of military force, the Kremlin could put the same divide-and-rule techniques to use in Crimea, the province of Ukraine that is dominated by ethnic Russians, in ethnically Russian northern Kazakhstan, or in Baltic states with large Russian minorities,” The Financial Times forecasted.
According to The Times, Tbilisi was much more successful in the war of words. If Georgia’s military had been aggressive to the extent equal to the media, the war for South Ossetia might have ended differently.
But The Times also acknowledged that “the five-day war had opened a new chapter in relations with the former superpower that was once again flexing muscles.”
www.kommersant.com
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