Context

As the Soviet Union began to disintegrate at the end of the 1980s, ethnic tensions grew between the Abkhaz, the South Ossetian and Georgians over Georgia's moves towards independence. Many Abkhaz and South Ossetian opposed this, fearing that an independent Georgia would lead to the elimination of their autonomy, and argued instead for the establishment of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as separate Soviet republics in their own right.

South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in the 1991–1992 war (in which more than 2,000 people died). Russian as well as Georgian and South Ossetian peacekeepers were then stationed in South Ossetia under the terms of a 1992 agreement and were monitored by the OSCE mission in Georgia. Since 1992, South Ossetia (and Abkhazia), de facto independent zone, was isolated and had to deal with different embargos ruled by Georgia. This poor regions only survived with the help of the Russian Federation : for example, Georgia cut off supplies of electricity to the region, which forced the South Ossetian government to run an electric cable through North Ossetia. In addition, Russia gave to South Ossetian people Russian passeports, to permit them to benefit some minor social advantages given to the Russian population (retirement, health etc.).

Georgian attack

Ongoing occasional confrontations escalated to a war early on 7 August 2008, when Georgia launched a military offensive to surround and capture the capital of separatist Republic of South Ossetia, thus breaking the terms of the 1992 ceasefire and crossing into the security zone established therein. The "blitzkrieg" attack was organized by regular Georgia army and Georgian peacekeepers stationed under the terms of a 1992 agreement, and caused a humanitarian crisis with a estimation of more 1000 dead people and thousands refugees.

Russian reaction & interest

A large majority of the residents of South Ossetia are Russian citizens holding Russian passports. Medvedev cited article 80 the Constitution of the Russian Federation, saying, "I must protect the life and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are." He claimed that it aims to force Georgia to accept peace and restore the status quo, and that it is acting within its peacekeeping mission in South Ossetia, and in line with the mandate issued by the international community.

But it is obvious that the Russian involvement in the conflict was not just devotion for the OSCE mandate. In fact, Ossetia-Abkhazia-Georgia is a really strategic zone in many ways. First of all, this zone is an international transport corridor for gas and oil between Caspian, Black and Mediterranean Seas. US and occidental invested a lot of money in pipelines the last past years, and it may be probable that Russia want to keep a control of the region. Russia invested also a lot of money in South Ossetia : according to Reuters, around two-thirds of annual budget revenues of the separist government comes directly from Moscow and Gazprom is building new gas pipelines and infrastructure, worth €400 million, to supply the region from Russia.

At the April 2008 summit in Bucharest, Ukraine and Georgia were told that they will eventually become members of the NATO. In 2004, many Eastern European countries including Baltic countries become member of the NATO. For some years, the United States negotiated with Poland and the Czech Republic for the deployment of interceptor missiles and a radar tracking system in the two countries. The enlargement of NATO will besiege western side of Russian Federation. With his strong reaction, Medvedev want to show to United States that NATO expansion won't be as easy as USA want. More, it will be more difficult to a divided Georgia to become a member of NATO.

Russian ripost was a good occasion to frighten Saakashvili and to annihilate Georgian military forces. During the war, Russian pushed beyond South Ossetia frontiers : Reuters stated that on August, 15 Russian forces had pushed to 55 km from Tbilisi and stopped in Igoeti, an important crossroads. The Russians also occupied Poti, a sea port outside the conflict region, as well as military bases in Gori and Senaki.

The last point of the Russian involvement is that it was also a proof of military strength of Russian Federation destinate to Georgia, USA and NATO. In case of agression, Russia can react quickly and efficiently. This kind of counter-attack was almost diplomatically a must for the Kremlin : if they haven't do this, they will be considered like a weak country, who gives up his influence in the region.

USA strategy

In claiming protect citizens, Russia just tried to achieve some strategic goals, just like USA. Bush tried to manipulated the western media, making them tell that Russia started the conflict, which is probably what most of people of western countries is currently thinking. It is also because Georgia's territorial integrity is fully supported by the rest of the international community, which recognize South Ossetia as an integral part of Georgia, even if it is de facto false. He tried to spread the fear of the big Russia, talking about new a cold war and so on. For USA, this new conflict is a very good occasion to frighten people in order to promote the US/NATO european missile defense.

For the USA, Georgia is a strategic place to provide housing for those missile, but can also be a good basis for operations in Middle-East, for example for Iraq or Iran. As for Russia, Caucasus is also an economic interesting place with pipelines etc. Very quickly after the beginning of the conflict, destroyers of US navy cames to Georgia to provides humanitarian aid (note that it is a very strange vehicle to provide humanitarian aid). The fact that many ships of US navy came immediately in the region may indicate that USA was following the progress of the conflict since the beginning.

European Union

European Union had to deal with different tendencies : the atlantism of his president Nicolas Sarkozy, the will to take revenge on Russia of some eastern european country such as Poland, the influence of NATO in Europe and the dependency on Russian gas of many members of the E.U. That's why the position of European Union is a little more nuanced, condemning Russia but in the same time don't really react.

Questions

However, two points remain unclear. Why Georgia starts this war? Is it because they feel exhilarated to be protected by the powerfull USA or because they will become a member of NATO? Did they want to control South Ossetia for strategical purposes? Had they an american agreement? Did they think that Russia won't react? Anyway, It was obvious that Georgian military offensive was a kamikaze action and won't achieve.

The other point is, why Russia didn't recognize sovereignty of Abkhazia and South Ossetia before August 26, 2008? And why Russia still doesn't recognize Transnistria? Is it because they were afraid of sovereignty ambitions of some part of Russian Federation, such as Daghestan or Chechnya? Or because they already control the region, but didn't want to hurt diplomatic relations with international community, and took the opportunity to do it after the present conflict and western recognition of Kosovan independence? Why give Russian passeport, protect and fund citizens, but not recognize them as real Russian citizens?