The Russian-Georgian Conflict

Dear Readers:
I love fresh perspective. I love learning from people of different cultures, and in my work at the University of Oklahoma, I am able to work with people from all over the world. One of those people is Max (Maksym) Kovalov, who is from the Ukraine. Max sent this e-mail about the Russian-Georgian conflict; coming from that part of the world, he has an extremely unique perspective on the situation and I thought you all would benefit from the information Max provides in this writing. This is the e-mail in its entirety; I have not changed anything. Max is working on his Ph.D. in political science.
Sincerely,
Angie

You might have heard about the Russian-Georgian conflict over the last several days.
I wanted to send you an email of awareness that might shed a light on what’s going on from my, possibly biased point of view.

To my (and I am sure to millions of other Russian-speaking families around the world) great concern, the war that was launched by Russia against Georgia has already resulted in thousands of people dead or wounded, the partition of the Georgian territory, and a loss of the international image of Russia.

The cause of the conflict is the small territory of South Osetia. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, dozens of territories in the former Soviet Union proclaimed their independence. So did South Osetia - the region under the Georgian jurisdiction. However, officially, S. Osetia was recognized by almost none of the countries in the world. Today, the area is considered to be a zone of an ethnic conflict by the world community. Over the last several years, the parties have been conducting peaceful negotiations. The negotiations halted on August 8, 2008 when Georgia launched an offensive claiming that the Osetian separatists opened fire on Georgian villages. Russia moved its troops into Osetia and started rapidly moving through the Georgian territory. They also launched the airstrikes on Georgian villages, towns and its capital.

This is the short summary. There is a lot of speculation and very biased information among the Russian, Ukrainian (they support the Georgian side) and Western media. The official Russian position sustains that Georgia is the aggressor and Russia seeks to protect the ethnic Russians living in Osetia. From the western position, Russia launched one of the first post-Cold war attacks as a sign of zero-tolerance of the former Soviet states’ aspirations to join NATO, the EU and other western institutions. In other words, after trade, gas and other Russian policies did not work in regards to Georgia, Russia used Osetia as an excuse to launch an attack. I am not saying that this position is not biased. I am not taking either governments’ sides. But the military aggression of the second (arguably) most powerful military machine in the world on the state with the population of 5 million people is a disgrace.

The war is a special sadness for me because the peaceful citizens – both Russian and Georgia are dying because of the empirial aspirations of one (Russia) and/or of the so-called constitutional order-campaign by another (Georgia). These and other 13 states (including Ukraine) have co-existed for centuries. We share the same language, and to the extend culture and traditions, we trade with each other and share problems.

My email does not have any secret agenda other than to let you know about what’s going on. I am sure there are tens of war-like conflicts that erupt around the world every day and some last for years and decades. It’s very hard to heal the wounds that have an ethnic origin. Unfortunately, we pay attention to the events that are close to our geography, culture, and mind… I hope that this conflict will be over soon and people on both sides will come back to their normal life. At least those who remained alive. If you can call normal doing what you usually do after losing a family member - a father, a son, and a child.

May peace be with all of us.