Is something unusual happening in Georgia? Some 200 US troops have arrived in the key Caucasus state to train a new Special Forces unit for the Georgian Army. The Russian press has howled with rage that the United States should establish a military presence in what has always been Moscow’s sphere of influence. Yet President Vladimir Putin has been remarkably relaxed about the development, complaining only that the Georgians gave no official notification to the Kremlin that the Americans were coming. It is easy to believe, however, that Moscow and Washington have been in cahoots over this deployment, and that what is happening now could be the start of US involvement in Russia’s campaign against the Chechen independence movement.
Pentagon officials have given the pursuit of international terrorists as the key reason for the arrival of US forces. Georgia has borders with Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, but it is the Chechen part of the Russian border that interests the Americans. Washington appears to be building a case against the Chechens as the hard men and trainers of Al-Qaeda. It may be significant that at no point have the Americans yet sought to particularize which group of Chechens has been, in their view, closely associated with Osama Bin Laden and his people. What appears to be happening is that Washington is building up a head of steam against all Chechens.
Thus the American military are training up this new elite force of Georgian troops, to operate in the region around the Pankisi Gorge, a remote region which runs up to the Chechen border. This area is used by Chechens as a rear area to rest and regroup their forces away from the Russian military, though Moscow has almost certainly sent its troops into Georgia in hot pursuit on a number of occasions. There is, however, no clear evidence that the Chechens who have taken refuge in Georgia are in any way connected with international terrorism. So what is the point of US Special Forces training up Georgian soldiers in their special operations tactics? The answer would seem to be, so that Moscow’s repressive campaign against Chechen rebels can open a new front.
The political sensibilities in Georgia are such that the Russians could never have returned to the country to attack the Chechens in the rear, from Georgian soil. The Georgians do not have the expertise, the men or the money to launch a campaign themselves, assuming that they really wanted to attack their Chechen neighbors in the first place. The Americans, however, can provide everything that is needed, including the excuse for military action, in the shape of the war against international terrorism. It would not be the first time that the Kremlin permitted Washington to move into its own backyard.
In the way of these things, US “advisors” are likely to find themselves very close to the action as their Georgian special forces proteges go into action for the first time against Chechens. If and when this happens, the US will have effectively joined in with the Russians in their campaign against Chechen independence. It was bad enough Washington trading Moscow’s support for a free hand in the Caucasus. It will be much worse if Washington now joins in.
