Will we betray Georgia?

Wednesday, 14th June 2006

Susan Richards says that the Russian ban on Georgian wine is a whisper of the tensions that could turn into a roar — a Great Game for the 21st century

Georgia’s President Saakashvili has tied his colours firmly to the US mast since the Rose Revolution. And the West has gained much from this close relationship. Last year, the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan oil pipeline through Georgian territory connected Europe to the Caspian, the world’s largest untapped fossil-fuel reserves. Later this year, a second pipeline will start sending gas from the Azeri offshore field of Shah Deniz via Georgia to the Turkish city of Erzurum.

But once again it is less clear what Georgia has gained from Saakashvili’s passionate support for the West. The country has been offered no prospect of becoming a candidate for EU membership. Although it has been encouraged to hope that it may be invited to join Nato in due course, there is no definite commitment. What is clear is that if Russia increases its embargo against Georgia, the West is not going to do much to help its ally.

No wonder Georgia’s middle classes are becoming increasingly worried. They know their history. Christianised 17 centuries ago, their tiny nation has managed to hold on to its identity over centuries of conquest thanks to a very different philosophy. As the oak said to the reed in Aesop’s fable, ‘When the storm comes, it is better to bend than to break.’

If once again we inspire people to stand up to the Russians, then abandon them as we did in Hungary in 1956, who then will trust us?

Susan Richards is on the board of openDemocracy and is working on The Dreams and Griefs of a Town Called Marx, a story of Russia after communism.