駐日グルジア大使イワネ・マチャワリアニ閣下講演会('08.8.20開催)
「南オセチアを巡るロシア・グルジア両軍の軍事衝突の行方と平和解決の道」の要旨（英語）を掲載しました

2008年8月20日（水）、SPFの主催により、駐日グルジア大使イワネ・マチャワリアニ閣下による講演会「南オセチアを巡るロシア・グルジア両軍の軍事衝突の行方と平和解決の道」が行われた。

Georgia is currently under a brutal Russian military occupation whose aim is to destroy Georgia as an independent and democratic country, punishing Georgia for its desire to join NATO and pushing out Western influence in the geopolitically important Black and Caspian Sea regions.

The initiator of the war in Georgia is Russia under its current leadership of Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev by invading Georgia with 20,000 troops and more than 500 tanks and heavy armed vehicles of Russia’s 58th Army, and launching air strikes throughout Georgia in support of the Kremlin-backed leaderships of two separatist regions in Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, that launched offenses on Georgian forces.

It is now apparent that the operation presented by Russia as “peace enforcement” in Georgia to protect its passport holders (distributed by Putin’s government in the early 2000s) in Georgia’s separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia has turned into a military occupation aimed at ousting Georgia’s democratically-elected government, strangling its economy, cutting off the flow of energy resources from the Caspian Sea to Europe through Georgia, pushing out Western influence in the geopolitically important Caucasus region, and starting a confrontation with the West, NATO and in particular with the United States.

Russia’s occupying forces are now targeting now not only Georgia’s recently-built military infrastructure, but its economic infrastructure by blocking the flow of people and good on the main East-West motorway, cutting the East-West railway connection by blowing up a railway bridge, and blockading and looting our main port of Poti, to destabilize the government and choke the flow of supplies to Tbilisi and other areas of the country.

Russia’s aggression toward Georgia unmasks Russia to the world as an aggressor hostile toward any country in close proximity that wants close ties with the West, a country that flouts the UN charter and international law to violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries, putting into question internationally recognized borders established after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and openly supporting separatism in its immediate neighborhood.

If Russia is not stopped, its actions towards its neighbors or other former Soviet Bloc countries will destabilize regional and international peace and security, cause an open confrontation with the West and a geopolitical catastrophe on Russia’s borders, to the West, in Poland and the Baltic States, to the South, in Ukraine and the Caucasus, and to the East, in Central Asia. Russia’s invasion and occupation of Georgia will have far-reaching consequences for all these regions, and for Russia’s relations with the West, NATO and, in particular, the US.

It is obvious that Russia’s de facto leader Vladimir Putin wants to position Russia as one of the powerhouses in what the Russian government sees as a “new multipolar world” that will dictate its rules of the game to its neighbors and soon to the rest of the world.

The world should understand that Georgia is just a test case for how far Russia can push the envelope, to see how far the West will tolerate this aggressive, authoritarian government’s behavior and attempt to change the current world order.

This is a non-democratic, authoritarian country de-facto headed by Mr. Putin, former head of the KGB, who spent his life fighting the West and rooting out democratic regimes that might be evolving around Russia.

The international community so far has had limited success in averting a complete occupation of the country (including Tbilisi) with the 6-point ceasefire plan offered by France as the presiding country of the EU and with US vocal support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The members of international community, such as United States, European Union and NATO, are now openly condemning Russian military occupation and expressing support for Georgia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and the restoration of peace and stability in Georgia. The world has woken up to the idea that Russia’s aggressive policies are the beginning of a large scale confrontation with West.

The resurgence of a reactionary, aggressive and autocratic Russian leadership that aims at open confrontation with West and wants to set new rules for international relations is very worrisome. The approach used by the Russians is the one that in the 20th century caused two world wars, unprecedented destruction and death of tens of millions of people. Russia’s campaign in Georgia cannot be allowed to be a success, or more such actions will follow.

Japan as a leading democratic country could and should engage more actively in international efforts to reestablish peace and security in Georgia, stopping Russia’s resurgence as a dangerous power that acts according to its own interests when and where its sees fit, in contravention of established international standards and international law.