[8月6日] Georgia Key to Democracy Building in Caucasus

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By Andre de Nesnera
Washington
05 August 2008
Tensions remain high between Russia and Georgia, especially over the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and Georgia's bid to become part of NATO. In this report from Washington, Senior Correspondent André de Nesnera looks at why Georgia is so important for the West.

Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi have been strained ever since Mikhail Saakashvili was elected president of Georgia more than four years ago following a popular movement known as the Rose Revolution. And in January of this year, Mr. Saakashvili was re-elected, saying he would pursue many of the policies he began during his first term in office.

Sources of tensions

Analysts say many of the tensions between Russia and Moscow can be attributed to Mr. Saakashvili's pro-western policies, including his goal of membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - or NATO. During a recent trip to Georgia, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeated Washington's support for Georgia's NATO membership bid.

Russia vehemently opposes Georgia's desire to become a NATO member. Jason Lyall with Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) says Russia's strong opposition is part of President Dmitri Medvedev's robust foreign policy.

To imagine this from a Russian perspective, you would now have a Georgia inside NATO, he said. And Georgia borders unto Chechnya. And it is very hard to think of a more sensitive issue for Russians than Chechnya. And now you would have NATO membership right on its doorstep in the north Caucasus.

So this is caught up with that. It is also caught up now with [President] Medvedev's desire to show a more strident Russian foreign policy, a more prestige-seeking policy. This would be a huge blow to his regime if NATO could move this close into what are considered vital Russian national interests, he continued.

Another major source of friction between Georgia and Russia is the issue of the breakaway, separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia - two regions within Georgia, but bordering Russia. They declared their independence from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.

President Saakashvili has vowed to restore Georgia's territorial integrity by bringing them back into the fold. But analysts say little progress has been accomplished in that area, especially since Russia has been increasing economic and political ties with the two regions.