The long history of "bullying"

Interesting editorial in the New York Times today, regarding Russia's "bullying" in the Caucuses as if this were a new phenomenon. The NYT terms the Kremlin's approach "petty" but really it's the same approach that has been followed by Russia for centuries. The Treaty of Georgievsk, which made Kartli-Kakheti a protectorate of Russia, was signed in 1783, for example. (We'll disregard for the moment that Russia soon failed to fulfill the terms of the agreement, which called for the Russians to defend the Georgians.) In Azerbaijan, of course, the Russian involvement was formalized by the Treaty of Gulistan, in which Persia ceded much of Azerbaijan, Eastern Georgia, and Dagestan to the Russian Empire.

So, while the New York Times certainly can call the Russia's approach "bullying," any other approach would be quite remarkable.

Watching Russian propaganda

I've been watching some Russian propaganda tonight- mainly because a friend of mine, an actor, sent me some links to it. Martin plays a cynical journalist for the BBC. If you don't speak Russian, you won't get much of it - although there are some parts in English.

The basic plot: An entomologist - born in Russia, raised in the US, travels to South Ossetia, just in time for the 2008 war to start. He's there to collect a rare butterfly - but his scientific mission is forgotten when the bullets start flying and the bombs start falling. Because he and his Russian assistant - a journalist - are there at the very beginning, they have proof that the Georgians started the war. But the Western Media doesn't want to hear their opinions or view the evidence. As my friend's character cynically tells them - it's a media war - and the news media collectively represent one of the most important weapons of war.

It was nice listening to Russian, and interesting to see Channel One's propaganda. It's not a very subtle piece. The Americans are at best clueless. Even the American "hero" is a ditz, accidentally inhaling a bug at one point. The Russian woman, at the other hand, is attractive, brave, gutsy, and honest.

The Georgians are brutal thugs who kill unarmed civilians.

The Russian are honorable soldiers, defending neighbors in need.

The South Ossetians are beleaguered and out-gunned.

I'm sure my friend got paid well.

Is political change coming in Georgia?

As I read this NYT article, I remembered a conversation I had with an Azerbaijani woman last year. She was bemoaning the lack of political change in her country, and pointed the acquiescent attitude of the Azerbaijani populace as one explanation for the authoritarian government there. She had been to Georgia, and recalled how ordinary women had erected barricades to stop traffic. This feisty attitude of the people made it harder for a dictator to dominate the Georgians, she argued.

I'm not sure if this is true, but certainly it does seem that the Georgians are pretty good about making their voices heard. What would be the result if the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili felt he could repress the demonstrators with impunity? Indeed, would he be more likely to repress them if his good friend John McCain were president?

(The above is an icon in an abandoned church near Sighnaghi, Georgia, that I photographed last summer.)

The weight of occupation

Last week I was in the southern part of Georgia, and the scene was peaceful. If you didn't talk with anyone, you would have no idea that the country had been invaded a month earlier, and parts of the country were occupied. Yesterday, I spoke with a journalist and academic in Tbilisi. She painted a different scene. One of her friends was recently beaten by Russian troops. He was a taxi driver. Beaten for no reason, according to her. I know there are always two sides - and I don't have the opportunity to interview the Russian troops involved with this - but I expect it's just part of a general policy of intimidation of the local population.

Nonetheless, the school that employs her is still in business and still making plans for the coming year. Life goes on. Earlier in the week, I met an American who is planing to move to Tbilisi, captivated by its open intellectual atmosphere - quite different from the atmosphere in Baku, I might add.

Over the border

I had a few people warn me against going to Georgia, but they were far away from the area. The area I hoped to visit was far from the fighting, so I assumed that life wouldn’t be too affected at this point.

I was right.

I crossed over the Azerbaijan-Georgia by the Azerbaijan town of Balakan. On the other side of the town is Lagodekhi. The guidebook I’m using calls Lagodekhi “soulless.” That seems harsh, although I can’t say I saw much compelling there. The nature reserve that it borders sounds quite beautiful, with populations of chamois, mountain goats, bear, and wolf. But visiting the reserve takes considerable planning. You can’t just drop in and go hiking.

After crossing the border quite easily, I caught a taxi to Tsnori (40 lari, or about $20). Tsnori had less to it than I imagined. A run-down commercial area, and run-down Soviet-style housing. So I wandered through the back streets until I found the road to Signaghi. Rather than pay for another cab, I decided to walk the whole way. After the first 40 minutes of the walk, I began to question my decision – but I had made the choice and there was little chance of flagging a cab at that point, even if my pride had allowed it.

On the positive side, I found an old Georgian church on the way. It was ancient- but not abandoned. Inside, people evidently still burned candles in front the icons. But I’m not sure if the bats sleeping on the ceiling were Christian.
And when I got hungry, I found snacks growing on the blackberry bushes and pomegranate trees by the road.

People have lived in the area now occupied by this little town since pre-history, but the town itself only developed in the lat 18th century. Perched on a bluff above a broad plain that stretches to the Caucasus Mountains, Signaghi has been has home to many musicians and artists over the years. I could understand this, given its scenic location.

At the moment, the town seems is still completing a renovation project, financed by some U.S. grants. Maybe some World Bank funds too. (I can’t remember the details from the signs. While some people might argue that the grants make the place look less “authentic,” for the most part the renovation seems to have been very tasteful. It’s nice to see houses well-kept and painted. And I loved the baskets for throwing litter away. They were very common – and appeared to be used. Of course, out of the town, people still dump their trash by the side of the road, but at least within the town it’s quite neat.

The style of the architecture in the town is quite different the houses in Azerbaijan. The houses were almost Italianate, brightly painted with red tiled roofs. After strolling around the center, I headed toward what is referred to as “the monastery.” Now, this place is a convent, and the black robed nuns were working outside on the beautiful grounds. In the church lies the tomb of St. Nino, the saint who brought Christianity to Georgia.

You may notice that the word “war” doesn’t occur in any of this description. No refugees clogged the roads. No smell of cordite in the air. The war was alluded to in a conversation I had at the local tourist center. But no one spit at me when I asked if Russian was understood. And in fact, most of the people I spoke with did speak Russian. The most extensive conversation I had about the war was in the taxi on my way back from Signaghi. He said that Georgia has good relations with all its neighbors. Except for Russia.

Yeah, I guess.

(Above is a shot from the interior of an old church. And a shot of Signaghi.)

A bomb from Russia

All of Saturday, I still felt the motion of the train, that gentle swaying back and forth. It was a long trip – nearly 11 hours – from Baku to Zaqatala. But the train ride itself was uneventful and even pleasant.

Of course, not everything is pleasant. The smell form the toilet down the hall, for example. But the people in general are friendly, and I frequently have interesting conversations on the train.

I met one man – a native of Zaqatala – who was returning after working in Baku. My acquaintance was not working in his profession exactly, so he didn’t really regard what he did as a real job. But it was a job.

He was quite open about his criticism of the government’s penchant for hanging posters of the president and the president’s father everywhere. He seemed to have some knowledge about how much each poster cost. I’ve wondered about this myself. He said that a small one costs 300 manat and they go up considerably from there – into the thousands of manat. This sounds realistic, and if you do that math – multiply how many such posters hang around the country – it is hard to escape the conclusion that a great deal of money is being spent on this propaganda.

My traveling companion wondered about different ways this money might be invested more profitably for the population.

Of course, the conversations nowadays nearly always turn to Georgia at some point, and today’s chat was no exception. My friend was full of nostalgia for the Soviet system – the equality, the social spending, the fact that people had reasonable jobs – but he was deeply suspicious of the Russians. In the ‘90s, he said, the Russians fired a missile of some sort at Zagatala, and it landed not far from the train station. Because the earth was so soft, it landed but didn’t explode immediately. The authorities detonated it specially, and it created a huge explosion.

As we rode by, he pointed out the crater. To be honest, I wouldn’t have noticed it otherwise. But the impact it made in people’s minds was deeper than the hole it created in the earth. People remember that Russia sent a bomb into Azerbaijan, and this colors their perception of the country.

Moon

I have not turned on the television news today, but I did listen to the BBC today. The report: that the Russians are not hurrying to move from their positions inside Georgia. Surely this is no surprise. The Russians are looking for further security guarantees. The cynicism would really be amusing - but war isn't funny.

The Washington Post had a good piece today on the conflict. The article methodically mapped out the events that led up to open warfare last week. Good because it paid attention to the role that both parties played. Of course, both parties will complain about the bias - so this is probably a good sign. Yes, the Georgians endured month and months of taunts and provocations - but the fact remains that the evidence appears to show that it was the Georgians who started the shelling of Tskhinvali. Of course, this was exactly what the Russians wanted - a response to their provocation, the excuse to begin a complete invasion.

I remarked yesterday to an American friend that the war has really been a tragedy for all concerned, not least the Russian people. Why the Russians? he asked. I think the Russian people - as opposed to the insiders at the Kremlin - will suffer if the conflict widens or persists. Yes, the Russian government budget sits on a comfortable surplus now, but this doesn't mean that the Russian economy as a whole is healthy. It remains overly dependent on its energy resources. The country needs investment in its infrastructure and its people. And the fat energy revenues mask serious problems in the economy. Corruption and inefficiency are persistent problems. These problems will only be exacerbated if Russia become further economically and politically isolated as a result of this conflict.

But - because the country's leaders do not fear democratic elections, the real interests of the country don't rank very high in the decision-making criteria.

Then again - my own country is supposedly democratic - and I sometimes wonder if its leaders consider the long-term interests of its people.

By the way - here is a blog also written by a Baku resident, also talking about the war in Georgia. It was recommended to me recently by a friend.

On a separate topic entirely, the lunar eclipse was quite visible last night in Baku. I woke up about 1:30 a.m. and happened to notice as the sun's shadow starting easing over the big silver moon. Took a photo or two - but they were really unimpressive. Instead - here's a show I took of the full moon rising over the Caspian last night. And a shot of the "bulvar."

Soldiers shooting civilians

This morning, I talked with a taxi driver who had driven up to the Georgian border town of Krasny Most with some journalists. The journalists are still in Georgia. The taxi driver came back. He didn’t see bombs, but he smelled them. Also, saw many refugees. Not all of them Georgian. Many Azerbaijanis live there too. People unfamiliar with this area don’t realize how many ethnic groups exist, all mixed in together, without regard to national borders.

He also said that witnesses spoke of Russian soldiers shooting civilians. Just shooting everybody.

Another Azerbaijani with connections inside of Georgia told me today that the Russians have taken Poti, a city near one of the factories of SOCAR, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic. Gori is now without Georgian troops, and many Georgians are trapped within their own country, unable to get to Tblisi and unable to get to safety.

I have e-mailed one of my contacts within Tblisi, but I haven’t heard back from her yet.

People in Azerbaijan are taking this very seriously. It's not like they are expecting an invasion exactly, but they recognize the naked flexing of power by Russia. It is familiar. And the situation looks terrible for the Americans. They have been shown again to be faithless and untrustworthy. Georgia had been doing everything it could to qualify for membership in the community of Western nations, but in the end, Georgia’s Western friends could not or would not help it.