Georgia-Russia conflict in the French press
PARIS — On Saturday morning, Le Figaro dedicated one full page and its editorial (signed by Pierre Rousselin) to the Georgia crisis. After a description of what happened Friday, Temour Iakobachvili, the Georgian Minister in charge of the re-integration of separatist territories, put the full responsibility of the Georgian reaction to numerous secessionist provocations and to the Russian government, which sent some troops via the Rokky tunnel. He said that “the war has not been declared from his government, neither from Russian government, but the Russian aggression is a fact and has to be stopped.” In particular, the bombarding, confirmed by OSCE observers, will not impede Georgia “to restore our sovereignty, our military and civilian control, on all the Ossetian territory.”
According to Rousselin’s editorial, this “War in the Caucasus” has to be taken seriously because this is a new test of the NATO-Russia relationship. The Olympic game timing is so obvious that both reactions could have been anticipated. Calling for an immediate ceasefire and for the respect of the internationally recognized borders are obviously necessary even if the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo will also be used by the Russians in favor of the secessionists.
More importantly, Rousselin wrote, the International community should try to prevent the extension of the conflict in Abkhazia, despite the obvious reality that it will be very difficult. Is Russia, in its strong nationalism renewal period, ready to lose this new Caucasian challenge? Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili thinks that Western countries will back him in this conflict, not just because of his NATO request to get in, but also for its key strategic situation in the energy issues. According to Rousselin, the Georgian president may be surprised by the NATO countries’ reactions: the price to save his presidency could be too high for everybody, and nobody will take the risk of a war against Russia. In any case, Rousselin concludes his editorial by considering that this conflict was in preparation for a long time, but in front of a war, the French EU Presidency, after the last German attempts, should take initiative in order to avoid irremediable consequences with Russia.
Le Monde also dedicated its Sunday editorial (published Saturday afternoon) to Georgia. The piece Recalled first how this situation is the historical consequence of Stalinism (Ossetians’ nationalism better managed if divided), then how the independence from the Soviet Union and the three secessionist Georgian zones that have evolved in different ways. If the Ajarian territory on the Black Sea coast and its autonomy requests have been managed smoothly, the two others have been more complex to handle from Tbilisi. Between local requests of independence (in order to go back to Russian protection) and defense of territorial integrity from the Georgian capital, both players were very logical in their respective antagonistic games. Again, NATO’s last sequences certainly have been an accelerator of the current crisis. In front of such situations, the Le Monde editorial underlines how Western countries have no real concrete choice. They could not strongly and publicly encourage Georgians to restrain their requests, but they do not have any means to force Russia not to intervene. President Dmitri Medvedev could recall Kosovo’s case as an example. In a certain way, realism should be strongly rooted in Georgians’ minds, in particular to not push the Western countries too far to have to make a choice. According to Le Monde, between Russia and Georgia, “this is not difficult to imagine toward which side they will tend.” This is why the Georgians restrain to make provocations and to not answer Russian ones.
Libération, the center-left newspaper, gave space to an interview with Charles Kupchan, who criticizes the American administration for having forgotten the importance of this latent conflict, and for having given the impression to the Georgian president that the Americans were completely backing his country and policies. President Saakashvili may have overestimated Washington’s support. In any case, according to Kupchan, talking so often of “territorial integrity” in such a provocative way was not very wise, and the U.S. administration could have asked him for moderation and to spend more time to resolve the Ablhazia and Ossetian conflicts.
The French government did not make any public comment on the crisis Saturday afternoon, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website gave no new information.