Western Policy Fuelled the War in Georgia
Simon Jenkins, The Guardian | August 13, 2008
This week's events in Georgia proved the failure of the Western policy of belligerence towards the Kremlin. ++ It failed to take into account the complexity of the ethnic, religious, and nationalist structures in Georgia and even encouraged Saakashvili to challenge Putin. ++ As a result, the plans to enlarge NATO experienced a backlash, Russian neo-imperialism is strengthened and Georgia has been treated to a very brutal lesson in power politics. ++ The West would be well-advised to leave the Caucasus alone.
