A Scan of the Russo-Georgian Pregnancy
Op-Ed
The story is long, but I will cut it short. It all started in the 12th century with the warming of the Georgian regal bed by a Russian noble body, of which the end was unfortunate. Yet, the following centuries did not yield anything special – just a sporadic cultural, economic and political interaction between the two Christian Orthodox states. The 17th century witnessed the intensification of diplomatic ties with occasional hints of Russian military assistance to Georgia; the following hundred years were marked with Georgia being torn between opposing foreign powers, including Russia, trying to dominate this gorgeous land; in the crucial year of 1783, Georgia knelt to Russia’s supreme authority and protectorate, although Georgia maintained its domestic independence, burdened with the obligation of its military allegiance to Russia; in 1801, Georgia was incorporated into Russia and cultural and economic ties between the two nations grew closer as a result; in 1918, Georgia became an independent state but not for long; in 1921, Georgia was remade into a soviet socialist republic as part of the Russian-dominated USSR; in 1991, Georgia reclaimed its national independence from Russia; in 1992, the two countries established diplomatic relations, which were severed after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War as a consequence of Russia’s recognizing the separatist Georgian territories as independent states; and currently, Russia and Georgia are at daggers, talking to each other like former irritable spouses, having found themselves in a historic cul-de-sac within which the prospect of rapprochement is as blurry as ever before. Had the relations been handled correctly in the period of pregnancy, the Russo-Georgian link could have given birth to a child who was healthy, wealthy and handsome.
So much for history! We all fret about the ongoing matters in the political and diplomatic chasm that has dragged in the fates of two good and innocent peoples. There must be something mischievous brewing in the void built between Russia and Georgia. They say there is some flimsy trade exchange and frail economic interaction taking place inter alia, but who cares? Those are the issues that matter least. What counts is the chance of a salubrious consideration of the damage that both sides have suffered, are suffering and will continue to suffer in the future.
Listening to the routine governmental statements and to the sporadic commentary of political analysts, be it expert opinion or folksy kitchen talk, one might get the feeling that something bad is going to happen soon, and the wrong that might be done will never be righted.
Russia is angry with Georgia, thinking that Georgia has impaired the good old threading of mutual understanding in the entire tissue of friendship and cooperation between the two peoples by betraying the centuries-old love and brotherhood. On the other hand, Georgia feels uncannily hurt because Russia snatched away its historical lands. The mutual frustration between them has become practically insurmountable. They have long been on non-speaking terms with each other, and this is not at all helpful.
The overall feeling is that the extant Russo-Georgian relationship is pregnant with something unpredictable, but it is definitely intensely charged and heavily loaded.
My ridiculously uneducated guess would be that anything can happen at any time in point: it could be an abortion and we may very well relax thanks to the nothingness of the discharge; it might end up in a parade of Russian tanks on our roads and streets with the highlighted purpose of teaching a lesson to the belligerent former vassal; it may well lead to the soviet-style incorporation of the now-only-occupied Georgian runaway regions into the Russian empire; it could also trigger a further breakup of Georgia’s remaining territory into additional separatist bunches; or it may turn Georgia’s 30-year-old independence into a colonial dependence from Russia.
Yet the pregnancy resulting from the Russo-Georgian link might well harbor certain natal good news, like Russia returning all previously grabbed territories to their lawful owner and the signing of a lifetime agreement of friendship and cooperation between the two reincarnated brothers, but this guess is as good as all others before. The political prenatal scan is not clear enough in the Russo-Georgian pregnancy to determine the nature of the fetus. Therefore, we will have to employ some additional endurance and wait patiently for the upcoming labor and the appearance of the due infant thereof. For how long? Definitely, more than the regular nine months!
By Nugzar B. Ruhadze
Image source: worklifelaw.org