by Marcus Papadopoulos
Hopes for peace in the South Caucasus took a turn for the worse this week after Russia vowed to respond with military force against Georgia if the latter continued to shell territory in South Ossetia.
The Russian Defence Ministry, which maintains nearly 4,000 troops in South Ossetia, said that Georgian forces had on several occasions fired mortars onto South Ossetian land with the most recent falling on the village of Otrev, near to Tskhinvali, the capital of Georgia’s breakaway republic.
The ministry said: “Events in August 2008 developed in line with a similar scenario, which led to Georgia unfolding military aggression against South Ossetia and attacking the Russian peacekeeping contingent. In case of further provocations threatening the republic’s population and the Russian military contingent deployed in South Ossetia, the ministry retains the right to use all available means and forces to defend the nationals of South Ossetia and Russian servicemen.”
Georgia has denied Moscow’s claims of firing on South Ossetia and instead has alleged that the Russians are attempting to shift the border between Georgia and South Ossetia.
The international community, including Tbilisi’s allies, notably the United States, has accepted that it was Georgia which fired the first shots leading to the war in South Ossetia last year.
On the anniversary of that war, the Kremlin may now be poised to finish off President Saakashvili’s staunchly pro-Western government and, in the reported words of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, “hang” the Georgian leader “by his balls”.
As Tribune went to press, the Russian government was describing the situation along the Georgian-South Ossetian border as “worrisome”.
