Yay or Nay to Russian-Georgian Dialogue?

Hey folks, is there anyone out there who can confidently agree that the Russian-Georgian dialogue, even though not a terribly constructive one, might do some good to the concerned parties, especially to Georgia? Is anybody smart and qualified enough to prove to the world that dialogue is better than obstinately sitting in the painfully uncomfortable saddle of nonspeaking terms?

OK, granted, Russia is an insatiable occupant who either openly or stealthily encroaches on our Georgian lands, but she also is a neighbor, and a very strong one at that, and mean and spiteful too! Russia is arrogantly belligerent, but her territory is intact as it has always been historically: Georgia is beaten up and torn apart as our past has always had it. Russia has taken and keeps grabbing our lands and we can’t stop it. We are not strong enough to defy Russia’s imperial endeavor. Russia may someday roll its tanks and machine-guns into our territory and we will most probably sit and watch it happen. And if this happens, the western powers will probably keep mum, or in the best case, will warn us against resorting to force, diligently recommending to use only a diplomatic tongue for saving our souls. And if this precious piece of the standard western advice is not followed by the Georgian side, war may follow. And the war theater is definitely going to be our territory.

So who should be more interested in dialogue – Georgia or Russia? Personally, I strongly suspect that Georgia not only needs a dialogue with Russia but simply can’t continue living without it. I have also heard that membership in NATO might be the way out for Georgia in the dismal cul-de-sac which has slowed the country’s normal development for quite a while. Yes, I might nod willingly to that version of solving Georgia’s endless problems, but at what expense? The price is going to be a final farewell to the lost lands that seemed to have been only temporarily lost up to now, but if Georgia finds itself under the bulletproof NATO umbrella, the idea of territorial integrity, equal to the most powerful national idea of freedom and independence, might evaporate forthwith and forever.

So what to do? Talk, talk and talk again! Talk with Russia! Talk does not mean capitulation. Talks might contain the potential of a solution. It may not contain anything vital right now, but talking means movement, and movement is better than stagnation. Even the West and the entire international community are telling us to talk to Russia even though she is an invader of our lands, because not talking means keeping the murky status quo untouched for another hundred years, if not longer.

It is we who has a territorial problem, not Russia. Russia can sit back quiet and happy, and watch us with imperial calm and conceit, and nothing will happen to her. Conversely, Georgia may get totally depleted of the remaining national energy and economic power because living with that big pain in heart and sense of inferiority in mind, only the country’s impotence for survival will grow, not its strength for reaching the other side of the ominously muddy river.

Where is the mischief in talks? In what way can it harm Georgia? Is it a case of national humiliation? Are we losing our ties with NATO and EU? Would that mean going back to the USSR? Could it see Russia imposing all over again its habitual imperial power on our motherland? Will it threaten our statehood and independence? This could all be true to a certain extent but trying to talk does not mean succumbing. Talking would only mean making an attempt to change something. I am not a naïve believer in Russian love and benevolence for Georgia, but I believe in movement, not in languish. This way or that way, saying Nay to Russian-Georgian dialogue will never be productive, although just as unproductive might be saying Yay, but this will at least give us a chance to declare loudly that we have tried!

BY Nugzar B. Ruhadze