Medvedev again threatens Saakashvili
By Messenger Staff
Monday, February 15
Over the last couple of years President Medvedev of Russia has several times used strong language against Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili. He did so again on February 11 during a meeting with students in the Siberian city of Tomsk.
One of the students at this meeting, prompted or otherwise, asked him a question about taking Saakashvili to court over what he called "genocide" in Tskhinvali in 2008 when others are being forced to bear some responsibility. Having received a brief answer he pushed his point further, an action which leads us to assume that in reality the questioner was a special services agent, not a student. Medvedev then said, as if reading his own script, that he entirely agreed with this and everybody should pay for their crimes. However Saakashvili should first answer to his own people, whom he took into the war and sacrificed, as the Georgian state had been destroyed by Saakashvili's actions.
This planted question received a scripted answer, in which the leader of the aggressor country tried, as ever, to blame Georgia and its President for his own aggression. The Tomsk student demanded that Saakashvili be punished for the genocide of “our people”. ‘Our’ here presumably means that Ossetians have become Russians, or should do. This concept was the initial basis of the Russian leadership's wartime propaganda, which it is now trying to revive, although neither Medvedev nor the 'student' explained how you can be Russian and independent at the same time.
Medvedev and Putin, like the rest of Russia’s leadership and military elite, know very well that there was no genocide of Ossetians. An ethnic cleansing of Georgians took place before, during and after the August 2008 war and continues now, as is generally acknowledged by Western observers and experts. The accusations made against Saakashvili by the Russian leadership are in reality attempts by neo-imperialistic Moscow to justify its absolutely unlawful conduct. Russia recognising the breakaway regions as independent states and building up its military presence there is in reality its occupation of a neighbouring country’s territory and an attempt to disguise this occupation.
Medvedev now tells the Georgian people how they should behave. He says that Saakashvili should be brought before the courts by his own people. In recent weeks The Kremlin's leadership has been increasingly promoting this idea that the Georgian people are good but their leaders are bad. However since the Soviet Union collapsed and Georgia regained its independence Russia has not liked any of the Georgian leaders, Gamsakhurdia, Shevardnadze or Saakashvili. Clearly this is because the Russian leadership simply does not like Georgia’s independence and sovereignty.
Moscow seems to want Georgia to be run by a puppet leadership like the occupied territories are. There are now some political figures in Georgia who would be happy to be Moscow's puppets. The Georgian media speculates intensively about different scenarios of Russian domination, projecting in hope the concept that there is a kind-hearted Russia which shares our religion. Georgia should be aware of what is going on here but the country’s leadership should move only in a democratic direction to prevent Georgia becoming another Russian satellite.
One of the students at this meeting, prompted or otherwise, asked him a question about taking Saakashvili to court over what he called "genocide" in Tskhinvali in 2008 when others are being forced to bear some responsibility. Having received a brief answer he pushed his point further, an action which leads us to assume that in reality the questioner was a special services agent, not a student. Medvedev then said, as if reading his own script, that he entirely agreed with this and everybody should pay for their crimes. However Saakashvili should first answer to his own people, whom he took into the war and sacrificed, as the Georgian state had been destroyed by Saakashvili's actions.
This planted question received a scripted answer, in which the leader of the aggressor country tried, as ever, to blame Georgia and its President for his own aggression. The Tomsk student demanded that Saakashvili be punished for the genocide of “our people”. ‘Our’ here presumably means that Ossetians have become Russians, or should do. This concept was the initial basis of the Russian leadership's wartime propaganda, which it is now trying to revive, although neither Medvedev nor the 'student' explained how you can be Russian and independent at the same time.
Medvedev and Putin, like the rest of Russia’s leadership and military elite, know very well that there was no genocide of Ossetians. An ethnic cleansing of Georgians took place before, during and after the August 2008 war and continues now, as is generally acknowledged by Western observers and experts. The accusations made against Saakashvili by the Russian leadership are in reality attempts by neo-imperialistic Moscow to justify its absolutely unlawful conduct. Russia recognising the breakaway regions as independent states and building up its military presence there is in reality its occupation of a neighbouring country’s territory and an attempt to disguise this occupation.
Medvedev now tells the Georgian people how they should behave. He says that Saakashvili should be brought before the courts by his own people. In recent weeks The Kremlin's leadership has been increasingly promoting this idea that the Georgian people are good but their leaders are bad. However since the Soviet Union collapsed and Georgia regained its independence Russia has not liked any of the Georgian leaders, Gamsakhurdia, Shevardnadze or Saakashvili. Clearly this is because the Russian leadership simply does not like Georgia’s independence and sovereignty.
Moscow seems to want Georgia to be run by a puppet leadership like the occupied territories are. There are now some political figures in Georgia who would be happy to be Moscow's puppets. The Georgian media speculates intensively about different scenarios of Russian domination, projecting in hope the concept that there is a kind-hearted Russia which shares our religion. Georgia should be aware of what is going on here but the country’s leadership should move only in a democratic direction to prevent Georgia becoming another Russian satellite.