Why this fear of Georgians bearing arms?
By Messenger staff
Wednesday, September 10
After occupying Georgia, Russian military personnel are now saying that it is unacceptable for anyone to supply arms to Georgia. This statement is an essential part of the Kremlin’s propaganda. Moscow knows perfectly well that the West will assist Tbilisi in the military sphere and it therefore hopes to present Georgia as an “aggressor” in order to maintain its “peacekeeping” role in the region.
Russia is once again a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The world should become blind and mute, and say nothing about Russia occupying almost a quarter of another sovereign country’s territory, establishing and recognizing separatist states on it and trying to obtain an international mandate to carry out its “peacekeeping” occupation.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said on September 1 that an embargo should be imposed on arms supplies to Tbilisi until the current administration is ousted and “a new leadership transforms Georgia into a normal state”. Don’t forget – Russia’s conduct, by this definition, is “normal”(!) The Ministry insists on this embargo “to stabilize the situation in the region,” expressing its concern over Georgia’s rapid reconstruction of its military infrastructure and alleging that under the cover of humanitarian assistance it is receiving military hardware as well. Even if this is true, what is wrong with a sovereign country developing its military potential legally, within the framework of the Treaty on Conventional Weapons, the Treaty which, by the way, Moscow withdrew from some time ago? For years Moscow has illegally introduced arms and ammunition in the separatist territories of Georgia as well as welcoming mercenaries and criminals to those regions.
The plea to impose an international arms embargo on Georgia has been supported only by Moscow’s satellite CIS countries: Armenia , Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Tbilisi has not purchased any arms from these countries ever. Therefore this support is just a symbolic gesture to please their patron, with no intrinsic meaning whatsoever.
In Georgia we have a proverb: “Zogisa bamba chkhrialebs zogisa okrots arao”, meaning that for some people cotton makes a noise and golden coins do not. Russia wants us to listen to the cotton, precisely because its own coins are making so much noise that we cannot fail to hear them unless distracted by the fripperies it wants to convince us are making much more noise than they.
Russia is very concerned at the presence in Georgian territorial waters of US Navy ships. Its media has spread the information that the US, Turkey and Georgia are negotiating opening joint naval bases in Batumi and Poti. What is wrong? Moscow itself declared last evening about deploying around 4000 regular troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It violates the agreements it has signed and the commitments it has taken. It willfully misinterprets the written texts and reads them as it likes. It looks into your eyes and cheats shamelessly.
“There are no Russian armed forces in Georgia” Medvedev, Putin, Lavrov and their military assure everyone. But there are, you can see them ! No, say the Russians , those you see are the peacekeepers. Operating under which agreement? Who granted their mandate? Do we hear the cotton or the coins?
Will the West take adequate steps against Russia? So far it tries its best. Will MAP be a relief? No one knows. Maybe it will anger Moscow even more. We now how unpredictable Moscow is. But the one thing we can be sure of is that Russia does what it wants and, according to its own statements, intends to continue doing so.
Russia is once again a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The world should become blind and mute, and say nothing about Russia occupying almost a quarter of another sovereign country’s territory, establishing and recognizing separatist states on it and trying to obtain an international mandate to carry out its “peacekeeping” occupation.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said on September 1 that an embargo should be imposed on arms supplies to Tbilisi until the current administration is ousted and “a new leadership transforms Georgia into a normal state”. Don’t forget – Russia’s conduct, by this definition, is “normal”(!) The Ministry insists on this embargo “to stabilize the situation in the region,” expressing its concern over Georgia’s rapid reconstruction of its military infrastructure and alleging that under the cover of humanitarian assistance it is receiving military hardware as well. Even if this is true, what is wrong with a sovereign country developing its military potential legally, within the framework of the Treaty on Conventional Weapons, the Treaty which, by the way, Moscow withdrew from some time ago? For years Moscow has illegally introduced arms and ammunition in the separatist territories of Georgia as well as welcoming mercenaries and criminals to those regions.
The plea to impose an international arms embargo on Georgia has been supported only by Moscow’s satellite CIS countries: Armenia , Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Tbilisi has not purchased any arms from these countries ever. Therefore this support is just a symbolic gesture to please their patron, with no intrinsic meaning whatsoever.
In Georgia we have a proverb: “Zogisa bamba chkhrialebs zogisa okrots arao”, meaning that for some people cotton makes a noise and golden coins do not. Russia wants us to listen to the cotton, precisely because its own coins are making so much noise that we cannot fail to hear them unless distracted by the fripperies it wants to convince us are making much more noise than they.
Russia is very concerned at the presence in Georgian territorial waters of US Navy ships. Its media has spread the information that the US, Turkey and Georgia are negotiating opening joint naval bases in Batumi and Poti. What is wrong? Moscow itself declared last evening about deploying around 4000 regular troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It violates the agreements it has signed and the commitments it has taken. It willfully misinterprets the written texts and reads them as it likes. It looks into your eyes and cheats shamelessly.
“There are no Russian armed forces in Georgia” Medvedev, Putin, Lavrov and their military assure everyone. But there are, you can see them ! No, say the Russians , those you see are the peacekeepers. Operating under which agreement? Who granted their mandate? Do we hear the cotton or the coins?
Will the West take adequate steps against Russia? So far it tries its best. Will MAP be a relief? No one knows. Maybe it will anger Moscow even more. We now how unpredictable Moscow is. But the one thing we can be sure of is that Russia does what it wants and, according to its own statements, intends to continue doing so.