Turning a New Page in Georgia's History

Abstract

After the demise of the USSR, Georgia has become geopolitically a key state in the Southern Tier region, which connected the landlocked, but rich with mineral resources region with the West by gas and oil pipelines. Georgia has become one of the places, where the interests of powerful states collide. Therefore, Georgia had to find means of securing its independence and territorial integrity and reluctantly became a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States. But after Commonwealth’s failure to ensure Georgia’s goals, it has been vigorously attempting to get membership of western Alliances and to this end it needed western support to overcome Russian opposition. Russia deliberately thwarted all attempts to resolve the regional conflicts in Georgia, as it would enable this small state to obtain membership of the Alliance. But some EU members were not able to discern the importance of Georgia in the Southern Tier region, which connects the eastern and western parts of Eurasia via gas and oil pipelines. This shortsightedness made them veto MAP to Georgia and Ukraine, leaving these countries against belligerent Russia. Russia took advantage of NATO’s disunity and tried to foil Georgia’s path to membership. The Russo-Georgian War shocked international community but it also challenged American power and the naïveté of the western world. With outsourcing the diplomatic lead in Russo-Georgian War to the European Union, the United States wanted to show Russia how the EU and other parts of the world were united against Russia’s attack on a sovereign country. But because of the EU’s ineptitude to evaluate future undesirable events, Russia broke the terms of the truce with impunity. Russia’s attack on Georgia was a showcase for other former Soviet republics, regarding them as its own backyard and a good lesson to the West, which had not defended its own interest in the Caucasus. Georgia has turned into a bridgehead in the Caucasus and Central Asia for the United States to thwart Russian desire or of any other regional powers willingness to dominate the wider Middle East. The true reason of Russo – Georgian war, was to claim nineteen-century-old style Russian sphere of influence in the Southern Tier region, the region which is a natural conjuncture of the eastern and western parts of Eurasia, thus geostrategically vital for the EU itself. Without independent Southern Tier region the EU will be depended on the Empire, under whose control these regions fall.