“Ideology of radical nationalism dominates in Georgia”

By Vestnik Kavkaza

The member of the Civic Chamber of Russia, the political scientist Sergey Markov told Vestnik Kavkaza about his view on the history of Russian-Georgian relations in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

-          Why cannot Georgia and Russia normalize relations?

-          The main problem of the Russian-Georgian relations is the ideology of radical nationalism which dominates in Georgia. This ideology was the reason why Georgia “bounced” from Russia faster than others. It also led to numerous conflicts. The essence of the Russian-Georgian conflict is radical nationalism typical for the Georgian elite, Georgian intelligentsia, and the social opinion.

-          What role is played by certain people in the conflict – Gamsakhurdia, Shevardnadze, Saakashvili?

-          The historic process is like a teeter totter – during the dissolution of the USSR a very radical nationalist Zviad Gamsakhurdia came to power in Georgia. Probably he was not a nationalist from the very beginning, but the wave of radical nationalism made him a nationalist. Gamsakhurdia began a criminal war against South Ossetia and came to the disaster. It worsened relations between Russia and Georgia.

Then, the teeter totter nodded into another side: Shevardnadze came from Moscow with a more soft program and course. He tried to provide the friendly policy with Russia. Eduard Shevardnadze was not a nationalist, but even he couldn’t be free from dominating radical nationalism. However under pressure of Tengiz Kitovani and Dzhaba Ioseliani Shevardnadze had to agree for military intervention of Abkhazia which led to worsening of relations between Russia and Georgia again.

After Shevardnadze had left the office, the teeter totter nodded into the first side: the Georgian society decided that such a bright original radical nationalist as Mikhail Saakashvili and his program of restoring Georgian integrity by military means have to be supported. The relations between our countries became the worst.

Regarding Saakashvili, from the point of view of Putin, Saakashvili and Obama are absolutely different cases. When Obama came in office, Putin treated him skeptically. But when Putin saw that Obama fulfills promises, he began to respect the American president.

Mikhail Saakashvili acted oppositely. When he came, I thought we gained good opportunities for normalization of relations – he is a nationalist and oriented to the population of Georgia, rather than to Washington. National interests of Georgia much more depend on relations with Russia than with the US. At the first meeting between Putin and Saakashvili they agreed on many important issues. But unlike Obama Saakashvili didn’t fulfill his promises, and Putin lost respect toward him.

We expect that the new Georgia leader will be less nationalistic and will try to improve relations between Georgia and Russia.

-          Despite the fact that three Georgian presidents had different political tactics, all of them were unacceptable for Russia, weren’t they?

-          There are no unacceptable politicians for Russia except for those who want to kill us. Gamsakhurdia was not an unacceptable politician. We thought he was a very weak politician and not adequate. We thought he led Georgia to a disaster, and he did – to the civil war. But he was not unacceptable for us. We will deal with anyone whom people of Georgia will choose. Our relations with Shevardnadze were rather intensive and many-sided. Russia saved Shevardnadze in Abkhazia because it believed in a possibility of normalization of the relations.

Saakashvili was acceptable for Russia too at first. We hoped for building normal mutually beneficial relations. But he ordered to kill Russian soldiers and became our enemy.

I think Georgia could express more gratitude toward Russia. Remember Georgia when it became a part of Russia. It was an underdeveloped abandoned province of Persia. Georgians were under threat of complete extinction. And what was Georgia after leaving Russia? The richest republic of the USSR! Only those who can be grateful have friends.

To be continued