Eli Lake, Washington Times:
Russia waged a covert war against Georgia that included missile attacks, arms shipments to anti-government rebels and car bombings since 2004, a newly disclosed U.S. Embassy cable says.
Among the secret war operations were a 2007 helicopter gunship attack on the headquarters of a pro-government group in the Georgian province of Abkhazia, and the murder of Georgian police officers in the town of Gory. Known inside the Russian security services as "active measures," the tactics employed against Georgia included political disinformation campaigns, industrial sabotage and assassinations.
"The variety and extent of the active measures suggests the deeper goal is turning Georgia from its Euroatlantic orientation back into the Russian fold," said the cable, signed by the U.S. ambassador to Georgia, John Tefft.
The July 20, 2007, cable, labeled "confidential," was written nearly one year before Russian military forces invaded Georgia, and raised questions about President Obama's reset policy with Russia. The White House has limited its opposition to Russia's bullying of former Soviet republics like Georgia to public statements. In the interim, the administration has touted an arms control treaty and Russian cooperation at the United Nations as evidence of better cooperation between the two cold war rivals.
Privately, however, several secret cables made public by the website WikiLeaks reveal that senior U.S. officials hold Russia's government and its policies in low regard.
The cable dealing with the Russian-Georgian conflict sheds particular light on the origins of the 2008 war. At the time, some international observers accused Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of provoking Russia, and sparking the war. Russian troops today remain in the Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
But the cable shows that at least the U.S. ambassador in Tblisi believed Russia was conducting a war of its own against Georgia.
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The Russians continue to deny the obvious. The Russian leadership seemed genuinely shocked that their version of events was rejected by the rest of the world when their overt war began. The true nature of the Russian regime is being exposed by the WikiLeaks post and that may be one of the few good things to come out of this episode.
Image via Wikipedia
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