Georgia is the only post-Soviet neighbor—and, in fact, the only country in the world—with which Russia has a protracted and carefully cultivated political conflict that periodically escalates and generates serious military tension. Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “no-holds-barred” ultimatum of September 11 created the impression of an imminent war, averted only by his friendly chat with Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze at the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit on October 5, 2001. Mutual commitment to sustaining this detente can by no means be taken for granted; the conflict deserves a more sober and less partial explanation than most of those currently made available by the media market. The lack of objective reporting in the Russia media in and of itself is a significant part of the problem. […]
Memo #:
251
Series:
1
PDF:
PDF URL:
http://www.gwu.edu/~ieresgwu/assets/docs/ponars/pm_0251.pdf
