To Russia with Love, Sort Of

It was Russia versus Georgia in the Olympic Women’s Volleyball heats. The two teams seemed to get along well before the match as the players all shook hands. In the end Georgia beat the Russians 21-10 20-22 12-15. But there was a whole different fight going on back home for both teams.

On August 8 crisis erupted when Georgia sent forces to retake South Ossetia, a pro-Russian province that threw off Georgian rule in the 1990s. Moscow responded by sending its troops into Georgia.

President Bush sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Tbilisi to show support for the Georgian government. The president also ordered the military to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia. He also said that Russia "must keep its word" and end the crisis with the U.S. ally. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that Russia is showing signs of returning to its authoritarian past and its invasion of Georgia will require the U.S. to re-evaluate the strategic relationship between the superpowers.

This morning on Meet the Press, David Gregory spoke with the Secretary Rice. On the question of whether Georgia provoked the crisis, Secretary Rice responded saying, “This crisis has been going on for, as I said, more than a decade. It has been a hot zone and a volatile zone where there have been skirmishes over a significant period of time. It is absolutely the case that we have cautioned all parties against the use of force. In fact, I also talked to the Russians repeatedly in this period about the railway troops that they were bringing in, about reinforcing their peacekeepers, about overflying Georgian territory. So this had been a zone of conflict. We were trying to resolve it peacefully.”

On July 15 of this year, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev said “Russia is indeed stronger and able to assume greater responsibility for solving problems on a regional and global scale. Thus for you and for all of us now I think it is absolutely clear that now the world is not just listening to Russia but looking to us for help with solving problems.”

Yeah.

Troops have yet to pull out of Georgia, and the U.S. can only hope that Medvedev keeps his word. A word of advice to Russia, if you’re looking to take your place in the world, this isn’t helping. Just a thought and just a message to Russia with love, sort of.

Photo by Dan Chung