Medvedev Flails about for Sochi Threat Boogeyman

Over at Rueters (and, in fairness, a lot of other places) comes unsurprising news that Russian President Dimitri Medvedev has his eye on a certain special someone this Valentine month.  With Russia (and the IOC, privately) jumpy about the security situation for the Games, an apparently desperate Medvedev reached out to his old fling from the summer of 2008: Georgia!  I guess he was unsatisfied with how things ended.  Regardless, per Medvedev, in addition to unspecified internal threats to security (Muslims/dark people), in his mind the biggest risk rests in Georgia:

"Forces that would impede holding the Olympics must be identified and brought to justice, if we are talking about citizens of our country," Medvedev told his Security Council at a meeting in the games venue Sochi, up the Black Sea coast from Georgia.  "You all understand that there are also certain problems connected to our neighbour, Georgia."

Ah, 'certain problems.'  What might those be?  Ok, let's back up briefly.  You can read all the gory details of of Russia's issues with Georgia at the above link but I'll summarize the important stuff, as it relates to the 2014 Winter Olympics. 

There are two so-called 'breakaway' regions within Georgia: South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, South Ossetia operated as the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.  The South Ossetians declared independence after the fall and formed an unrecognized separatist government.  This led to a war with Georgia in 1991-1992, in which there were plenty of human rights violations to go around and one in which the South Ossetians were supported militarily by Russia.  Ultimately, an uneasy truce resulted, with Georgia and a South Ossetian government unrecognized by Georgia controlled different parts of the region.  This conflict flared up again in 2004 and again in 2007 and Georgia resolved to firm up control and, thus, the 2008 war. 

With post-Soviet Abkhazia, the situation is much the same.  A breakaway region of Georgia supported by Russia, there were conflicts after the fall and the 2008 war in South Ossetia spilled over into Abkhazia, with military support rendered by Russia. 

Georgia (much as Russia does when it comes to Chechnya, etc) resents Russian intrusion into what it considers to be internal matters in both regions, especially with regard to military support provided.  In August of 2008, Russia recognized the independence of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia and this thoroughly pissed off the Georgians.  Official diplomatic relations between Russia and Georgia are no more and that, briefly, is how we get to today.

And now, for the really juicy bit...

As the folks over at Nosochi2014.com remind us, the Sochi Games coincide with the 150th anniversary of what they term the 'Circassian Genocide,' though it has not been officially recognized as such by any international body that I know of.  They call for the removal of the Games from Sochi on grounds that Sochi is on the lands once inhabited by the Circassian people.  They assert that, at the conclusion of the Caucasian War in the mid-19th century (in which Tsarist Russia finally subdued much of the Caucasus), 400,000-1.5 millioni Circassians were deported and/or killed.  Russian government records do indicate that there were mass deportations of people from the Caucasus and the closest Russia has come to acknowledging this was a statement by Boris Yeltsin in 1994 affirming the 'legitimacy' of the Circassians resistance to Tsarist Russia, but explicitly refusing to acknowledge the genocide. 

And so, belatedly, to bring the issue full circle, Medvedev's current problem with the Georgians is that the Georgian Parliament is considering recognizing this act as genocide.  This is, no doubt, a response to public grumbling from Russian authorities about alleged collaboration between Georgia and al-Qaeda/Muslim extremists in carrying out terrorist attacks within Russia.  These accusations remain unsubstantiated.  And so it happens that a truly tragic story that deserves to be told is caught up in the mess that is Georgia-Russia relations in 2011. 

I am certain of only a few things in this world: 1) Russia is not going to acknowledge any 'genocide.  2) The IOC is not going to strip Russia of the Games.  3) This move by the Georgian Parliament is purely politcally motivated to get back at Russia for its support of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. 4) This will come up again after the next terroist act in Russia (and there will be one) and will provide convenient cover for the Russian government as they struggle to contain their own breakaway regions in the Caucasus.

It sure seems like 'foreign agents' have been in the news a lot lately, doesn't it?