Thursday, 28th August 2008
Russian tanks on Europe’s lawns
There is much talk of a new Cold War with Russia, but what we witnessed in South Ossettia and Abkhazia in August was not a Cold War, it was a Hot War.
Regardless of the actions of Georgian President Sakhasvilli, who acted foolishly and stepped right into the elephant trap set for him by Moscow, the Russians acted in blatant violation of international law by invading a sovereign state. They have now compounded that grave offence by recognising the independence of both of those regions, handing out Russian passports to the citizens of South Ossettia and Abkhazia and condoning the ruthless ethnic cleansing of non-Russian citizens from both regions by marauding bands of irregular troops who raped and killed Georgian citizens and razed entire villages to the ground. The fact that the Russians were able to mount the invasion of South Ossettia within hours, proves that they had planned and prepared for this eventuality for months. They also spent many months trying to undermine the Georgian economy in advance of their invasion, softening them up for the kill. The first question we have to ask is where were the intelligence services of the 27 EU Member States? What were they doing? It must have been obvious, even from satellite surveillance that Russian tanks were massing on the Georgian border.
We must heed the warning of Richard Holbrooke, who said that if we let Russia get away with their annexation of South Ossettia and Abkhazia, then this will not be the end of their territorial abductions, but only the beginning. We have already seen their attempts to undermine the Ukrainian economy and we know that they have a major interest in the Crimea, which of course is part of the Ukraine and Transnistria, which is de jure a part of Moldova but de facto is a Russian dominated independent territory. We have also heard a senior Russian General threaten a nuclear strike against Poland, should they go ahead with their deal with America to position a missile shield in their country. We have seen Russian threats against Latvia and Estonia. So it is clear that Moscow is not afraid even to threaten EU Member States. Russia has shown that it is willing to use brutal military force to obtain their political objectives. Putin, who continues to pull the strings in Moscow, has ensured that Medvedev has embraced the old Brezhnev doctrine of armed intervention. We cannot allow them to get away with this behaviour which is all about tightening their grip on oil and gas supplies to the West, so that they can hold us to ransom.
But where does Europe stand in all of this? While President Sarkozy and David Cameron were rushing back and forward to Tblisi in the immediate wake of the Russian invasion of Georgia, the European Commission and Council were sadly absent from the scene. Where was Commission President Jose Manuel Barrosso? Where was the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs - Javier Solana? Apparently they were on holiday, no doubt relaxing somewhere on a beach. This is far from satisfactory and calls into question the ability of the EU to react decisively in times of foreign crises. Indeed only the centre-right EPP-ED Group reacted quickly by despatching two senior MEPs, Othmar Karas and Elmar Brok to the besieged South Ossettian city of Gori, where they had to confront no fewer than 16 roadblocks by the Russians, before they could reach their destination and broker negotiations between the warring factions. Based on their first-hand advice, we now need to hit back against Russia in a decisive way.
The EU needs to produce a hard-hitting resolution condemning the Russian invasion and demanding their complete withdrawal from South Ossettia and Abkhazia. We must be prepared to go further than NATO and further than the Council of Ministers in putting forward policy options, including tough sanctions against Russia and tough new measures to make it difficult for Russians to obtain visitor's visas to travel to Europe. We need to embrace Georgia and Ukraine and send strong signals to Moscow that they are now our close allies and are regarded as European countries. Predictably, socialist apologists will be desperate to water down any sharp criticisms of Russia. There is still a bizarre camaraderie between European socialists and their Russian counterparts. But we must stand our ground. Where the Russians are not afraid to send in the tanks, it is ludicrous for the EU to be afraid to use harsh words backed by tough sanctions.
