Last Thursday, January 25, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili used some very tough language during his third anniversary address. The speech casts disturbing shadows over the future of his nation, which has become the front line of the “New Cold War” between the US and Russia. Georgia is becoming for Russia what Cuba has long been for the US, “the enemy in the back yard.”

“A new Dodgori.” “When I became president three years ago,” said the young nationalist, pro-western president, “Georgia was on its knees. Since then we have risen to our feet and learned to stand upright and strong. Now no one can knock us over. We have regained our power and we are ready to set out toward our ultimate goal: national reunification. We shall be the generation to create a new Dodgori (the epic, 12th century victory of Georgian forces that re-established national unity – ed.). We shall be remembered by future generations, a generation that doesn’t back down before the titanic and nearly unfathomable obstacles Georgia will have to face in order to prevail.”

Enemies to Battle. Saakashvili left no doubt as to what these obstacles are: “Abkhazia, the most beautiful part of our country, is always in our thoughts. 80 percent of the houses have been destroyed and burned and the people who should be living there have been driven away by those now governing the region, who outrageously declare that they will never permit the return of the people whose ancestors are buried in Abkhazian soil. We shall never tolerate this situation! The same goes for our beloved region of Tskhinvali (Ossetia – ed.), whose population is held hostage by a gang of criminals.” The speech sounds a lot like a declaration of war against Abkhazian and Ossetian separatists who are supported by Russia, who uses them to maintain control over the “Cuba of the Caucasus.” The president’s speech comes at a worrisome moment of escalation of tension, with both sides claiming to be provoked by the other.

They’re Shooting Again. Three days after the Georgian president’s speech, on the morning of January 28, they began shooting again in South Ossetia. Georgian soldiers from the village of Nikozi attacked a roadblock set up by an Ossetian separatist militia, wounding three people, one of them critically. The next night a firefight took place, this time without victims, between Georgian soldiers and Ossetian militants in the village of Ergenti, near Tskhinvali. It is not known who shot first, but reports indicate that the Georgian forces were a special commando trained by US military advisors.
Tension is high also in Abkhazia, especially in the Gali district, where on January 5 one Georgian policeman was killed and another wounded in an attack by separatist militants in the village of Ganmukhuri. The attack was apparently a reprisal for the killing on last December 25 and 26 of three Abkhazi separatists, including two well-known commanders.