Paul Goble
Staunton, August 10 – Five years ago this week, Russian forces invaded Georgia after Tbilisi took actions that Moscow regarded as provocations, thus setting in train the first and so the only use of force between two internationally recognized states on the territory of the former Soviet Union since the very first years after 1991.
Many in both Russia and the West thought at the time that neither the post-Soviet space nor the international community would ever be the same, that Moscow’s willingness to use force to achieve its goals would force the two countries involved and others as well to change forever their understanding of those with whom they were dealing with.
But now, five years on, it has become all too obvious that both parties to the conflict and those further afield have remarkably quickly adapted themselves to this brave new world and devoted themselves to overlooking ...
