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The Right of First Blood
// The First Death in the Georga-Russia Standoff Changes Everything
When people clarify relations with their fists, the fight often goes by the rule of "until first blood." The one who bleeds first loses. An information war has different rules. Countries can trade blows, notes, sanctions – the question of who is right and who is guilty remains up for grabs until the first blood. But as soon as the first person dies during the struggle, all doubts vanish. The side that has spilled blood, either accidentally or on purpose, loses immediately. Death endorses all political arguments. In the popular consciousness, the guilty party immediately becomes the villain.
This law works no matter who dies, whether it took place accidentally, whether the murdered person was dispatched by a criminal from around the corner or wiped out by a speeding government car. For example, the ideological confrontation between European Muslims and those whom Muslims blame for Islamophobia ended with the death of the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. His murderer unwittingly dispelled the doubts of millions of Europeans about who is right and who is wrong in this clash of cultures. A stereotype has arisen, and it will be exceedingly difficult to lay to it rest.
Tengiz Togonidze may become a new Theo van Gogh. A symbolic victim of the confrontation between a superpower and its tiny neighbor. For Europe that's exactly how it will be. The death at Domodedovo Airport may soon turn out to be a factor of great political magnitude.
At the end of this week, Vladimir Putin will travel to Finland for a meeting between Russia and the EU. This will be his second trip to Europe in two weeks. When he flew to Germany last week, the only thing on Europe's mind was the murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Now the name on everyone's lips will be Tengiz Togonidze. The Russian president's European colleagues are intending to bring up the topic of Georgia at the talks, and they will blame Moscow for his excessively severe relations with Georgia. Before today, Vladimir Putin still had a chance to defend himself. He could have talked about how criminal groups with ties to the Saakashvili regime have been successfully uncovered in Moscow. That Tbilisi is provoking Moscow towards aggravation. If anyone asked him about the deportations, Vladimir Putin could have answered: "What, do European countries not deport illegal migrants?" And he could have reeled off statistics prepared for the occasion. In light of old Europe's – France and Germany – loyal relations towards Moscow, Europe's verbal attack would have stalled. Vladimir Putin could have probably succeeded in retaining his rightness, as Moscow has already succeeded in retaining its variant of the UN Security Council resolution concerning Georgia. Blood changes everything. "Illegal migrants don't die when they're being deported from European countries," they will reply to Vladimir Putin. They will be obliged to answer that way to please the press, public opinion, and the voters. Old Europe has long been loath to adopted a position on Georgia that displeases Moscow. But it has come to that – after news broke, incidentally, of the death in Domodedovo.
Politics are fairly cynical. The real concerns of the European leaders lie more in energy and in how Russia is behaving in that sphere, not in the situation in Georgia. But they have learned by heart the name Tengiz Togonidze and will bring it up more than once to Vladimir Putin, Gazprom, and their own voters at home.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 18, 2006
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